2020 Welsh Open (snooker)

The 2020 Welsh Open (officially the 2020 ManBetX Welsh Open) was a professional snooker tournament which took place from 10 to 16 February 2020 at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, Wales. It was the 12th ranking event of the 2019–20 snooker season, and the final tournament of the season's Home Nations Series. It was the 29th edition of the Welsh Open, first held in 1992. The event featured a prize fund of £405,000 with the winner receiving £70,000.

Neil Robertson was the defending champion, having beaten Stuart Bingham 9–7 in the 2019 final, but he lost in the quarter-finals to Kyren Wilson. Shaun Murphy won the event, with a 9–1 win over Kyren Wilson in the final. There were a total of 77 century breaks at the event, the highest made by Wilson, a maximum break of 147 in the first frame of his first-round match with Jackson Page.

Format

The Welsh Open began as a ranking tournament in 1992. The 2020 tournament took place at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, Wales between 10 and 16 February, the 29th edition of the event. It was the twelfth World Snooker Tour ranking competition in the 2019–20 snooker season, following the World Grand Prix and preceding the Snooker Shoot Out. It was the fourth and final event of the Home Nations Series, and featured 128 participants from the World Snooker Tour.

The defending Welsh Open champion from 2019 was Neil Robertson who won the final with a 9–7 victory over Stuart Bingham. All matches were best-of-seven frames until the quarter-finals, which were the best-of-nine, the semi-finals the best-of-eleven. The final was played over two sessions, as the best-of-17 frames. The event was sponsored by sports betting company BetVictor, and broadcast locally by BBC Cymru Wales; Quest; Eurosport in Europe and Australia; CCTV, Superstars Online, Youku and Zhibo.tv in China; True sport in Thailand; Sky Sports in New Zealand and DAZN in Canada. A single qualifying match was played between two local amateur players – Darren Morgan and Gavin Lewis.

Prize fund

The event's total prize fund is £405,000, with the winner receiving £70,000. The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:

• Winner: £70,000
• Runner-up: £30,000
• Semi-final: £20,000
• Quarter-final: £10,000
• Last 16: £7,500
• Last 32: £4,000
• Last 64: £3,000
• Highest break: £5,000
• Total: £405,000

Summary

The opening round was played on 10 and 11 February. Local amateur Darren Morgan completed a 4–0 win over fellow Welsh amateur Gavin Lewis, but lost to Shaun Murphy 0–4 in the opening round. Ashley Carty defeated Joe Perry, 4–3 after a break of 66 in the deciding frame. Soheil Vahedi defeated 20th seed Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 4–2, whilst 12th seed David Gilbert was beaten by Matthew Stevens 2–4. Kyren Wilson defeated Jackson Page 4–3, and made a maximum break in the opening frame, the second of his career.

The next three rounds were played on 12 and 13 February. After defeating Jamie Clarke in the first round, defending champion Neil Robertson defeated Mark Joyce, Noppon Saengkham and completed a whitewash over Gerard Greene to reach the quarter-finals. Wilson defeated Liam Highfield, Martin O'Donnell and ninth seed Ding Junhui to play Robertson, which he won 5–0. Mark Selby defeated David Grace, Chen Zifan, Andy Lee and Zhao Xintong to play Ronnie O'Sullivan in the quarter-finals, with O'Sullivan winning 5–1.

Seeded 19, Yan Bingtao defeated Michael Holt, Mitchell Mann, Stuart Bingham and Anthony McGill to reach the quarter-finals, who had defeated Luca Brecel 4–3 in the last 16. Yan defeated Higgins 5–2, where Higgins described his performance as "pathetic". Murphy defeated Alfie Burden in the second round 4–3, before beating Ben Woollaston and Dominic Dale 4–1. He met Judd Trump, the world number one, who had defeated James Cahill, Billy Joe Castle, Igor Figueiredo and Stephen Maguire in the quarter-final and won 5–3. Wilson defeated O'Sullivan in the first semi-final on a deciding frame 6–5, whilst Murphy overcame Yan by the same scoreline.

The final was played between eighth seed Kyren Wilson and tenth seed Shaun Murphy on 16 February. The final was played over two sessions as a best-of-17 frames match. Murphy won the opening frame with a break of 108, and made a second century break, a 134, in frame eight as he won seven of the opening session frames to lead 7–1. Wilson won only frame seven during the opening session. On the resumption of the match, Murphy fluked a red ball to win frame nine and took frame ten with a third century break to finish a 9–1 victory. This was Murphy's second championship victory of the season, having also won the 2019 China Championship 9–8 over Mark Williams.

Tournament draw

The results from the event is shown below. Players in bold denote match winners, whilst numbers in brackets are player's seedings.

Qualifying round

Darren Morgan (WAL) 4–0 Gavin Lewis (WAL)

Main draw

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Section 5

Section 6

Section 7

Section 8

Finals

Final

Century breaks

The event had a total of 77 century breaks made during the event, the highest being a maximum break of 147 by Kyren Wilson in the second frame of his first round match.

• 147, 136, 100 – Kyren Wilson
• 142, 131, 125, 118, 100 – Ronnie O'Sullivan
• 142, 100 – Zhao Xintong
• 141 – Lyu Haotian
• 140 – Igor Figueiredo
• 140 – Si Jiahui
• 139, 114, 111 – Matthew Stevens
• 138, 117 – Mark Selby
• 136, 128 – Stephen Maguire
• 135, 133, 121, 116 – Neil Robertson
• 135 – Luo Honghao
• 135 – Mitchell Mann
• 134, 116, 109, 108, 102, 101, 100 – Shaun Murphy
• 133 – Robert Milkins
• 132, 126, 121, 121, 101, 100, 100 – Judd Trump
• 132 – Ryan Day
• 130 – Liam Highfield
• 129 – David Grace
• 128, 117 – Luca Brecel
• 127, 122 – Barry Hawkins
• 127 – Ricky Walden
• 126, 106 – Chen Feilong
• 125, 108, 100 – Yan Bingtao
• 123 – Dominic Dale
• 120, 114 – Anthony McGill
• 117 – Robbie Williams
• 116, 110 – Ding Junhui
• 116, 107, 104, 100 – John Higgins
• 116 – Liang Wenbo
• 114, 101 – Mark Allen
• 110, 100 – Stuart Bingham
• 109 – Jimmy Robertson
• 108 – Jack Lisowski
• 108 – Tian Pengfei
• 105 – Stuart Carrington
• 104 – Andy Lee
• 101 – Xiao Guodong
• 100 – Gerard Greene
• 100 – Elliot Slessor