The 2026 English Open has quickly been whittled down to its last 16 contenders, with players next vying for a spot in the quarter-finals on Thursday in Brentwood.
Half of the those remaining in the field are top 16 members, including a couple of former champions of the Home Nations Series tournament.
Judd Trump and Mark Selby are both two-time English Open winners who remain on course to raise the Steve Davis Trophy aloft again.
The English pair, who each already boast silverware from this season, are on opposite sides of the draw at the Brentwood Centre.
China Open champion Selby is in the top half and must be running on fumes at present considering how much time he has been spending on the baize of late.
The four-time world champion narrowly missed out on glory at last week’s British Open, losing the final 10-6 to Jak Jones.
In Cheltenham, Selby emerged from his first three matches in deciding frames and it has been similar here, with back-to-back 4-3 wins over Ricky Walden and Zhang Anda taking him through to the last 16.
It gets even harder for the 43 year-old next, with former English Open runner-up Kyren Wilson his next challenge in the draw.
The only other top 16 player in the top section is Ding Junhui, who has similarly survived some taxing matches to get this far.
Ding is in serious need of some ranking points with plenty to come off his rolling two-year tally in the near future.
Indeed, Ding is way down at number 24 on the provisional Race to the UK Championship standings, meaning he will have to qualify for York and one of his favourite events if he can’t sort out his form soon.
The 39 year-old faces Joe O’Connor next, while the other games in the upper bracket pit Ali Carter and Zhou Yuelong against Gong Chenzhi and Yuan Sijun respectively.
In the bottom half, Shanghai Masters winner Trump has set up a meeting with Scotland’s Anthony McGill.
Although Trump has been a consistent force toward the business end of ranking events, he actually only boasts one title of such status in almost two years – the German Masters, which he won in February.
He remains one of the favourites at every event, but there is some pressure – not least from himself – to add to his tally of 31 ranking crowns.
Things look competitive in Trump’s lower bracket, with the likes of world champion Wu Yize, Crucible runner-up Shaun Murphy, and all-time legend Mark Williams still in the hunt for the £100,000 top prize.
Wu, who was a finalist in the 2024 English Open, is hoping to play himself into form after a slow start to the 2026/27 season.
The Chinese star faces Liam Davies next, while Murphy and Williams encounter Pang Junxu and Barry Hawkins respectively.
All eight best-of-seven matches in the last 16 take place on Thursday, with the two main sessions of play commencing at 13:00 and 19:00 BST.
Featured photo credit: WST
Ten ranking event winners remain.
The nationality breakdown is as follows: Seven English, Six Chinese, two Welsh and a Scot.
Thanks.
Lumping the Englishmen, Welshmen, and Scot together, that’s 10 – 6, which emphasizes how competitive the (mostly young) Chinese players are these days.
After checking (out of curiosity), there were 4 Chinese players in the last 16 of the just completed British Open (won by Jak Jones) — there were 10 in the last 32 of that event.
Hi Jay. I have been racking my brain for over a year to really, really understand the ranking system. Four years ago I black lined twice in ICU and although I am much better now, I think being over 60 does not help your learning new material.
After all that: I have a question you may wish to help me with.
When a tournament is final: is it that time the players’ earnings from the same tournament 2 years prior are taken into account to process the earnings or losses for the new tournaments’ true results? I have heard the term “run up” to a specific tournament, how is that different from my first question?
Forever grateful, Len.
>Ding is way down at number 24 on the provisional Race to the UK Championship standings
I’m not sure it’s entirely fair to describe #24 as ‘way down’ on the list.
Per a recent article here, Trump said there are ‘more lows than highs in snooker’ — that has certainly been true of Ding for some years now — given his inconsistency, and to be honest his fairly poor results, it’s difficult for me to imagine that Ding will escape having to qualify for the UK Championship — it also seems unlikely he will be in the Masters.
Ding enjoys a kind of emeritus status among Chinese players (deservedly) — but I think it’s fair to say that a number of other younger Chinese players are eclipsing Ding at the moment — they clearly have a lot of talent, plus enough competitive toughness to prevail in tough matches.
Well considering he has spent the majority of the last 20 years inside the top 16, a ranking of 24 would be quite low.
>the majority of the last 20 years inside the top 16
I’ll take your word for it.
As an admittedly casual follower of snooker, this does surprise me a bit, because it has been my impression that for the last few years, Ding’s results in ranking events have not been good enough to keep him in the T16 — and he has not started well this season: this is the 1st event where he has won 2 matches (reaching the last 8) — last year’s results were not great, and he didn’t participate in a significant number of ranking events (not sure why; don’t recall hearing anything about it) — in your recent rankings update, he is not in the T32 on the one-year list (same with Brecel).
I’ve always liked Ding as a player, also as a person, from what I’ve seen of him in interviews — he’s a well-known and seems to be a well-liked snooker personality, so I think his presences makes a tournament more interesting.
>(reaching the last 8)
I meant the last 16 (there are 8 matches in the last 16).
That’s cool eah, you and I are usually a day ahead. lol
Your report says it all. Great work David.