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By Lee Clow
ON February 15, the 2021 Welsh Open Snooker Championship kicks off, as 128 players bid to become champion.
The 30th edition of the event has a new home this year, with Celtic Manor Resort, in Newport, acting as host as opposed to the Motorpoint Area in Cardiff which has been used for the past five tournaments. The total prize fund for the tournament is £405,000, with the winner picking up £70,000 of the share.
The defending champion is Shaun Murphy, who beat Kyren Wilson 9-1 last year, but the hot favourite to take the crown this year is without a doubt world number one, Judd Trump.
In the 2020-21 snooker season, Trump reached six finals, winning four, including the 2020 English Open, the 2020 Northern Ireland Open, the 2020 World Grand Prix and the 2021 German Masters. The 31-year old’s first match up in the tournament is against 17-year-old, Zhao Jianbo, in section 5 of the tournament. Despite Trumps accolades, he is still not victorious in this competition, with his best showing coming in 2017 when he lost in the final against Stuart Bingham.
Other top seeds competing in the tournament include six-time World Champion, Ronnie O’Sullivan, world number two, Neil Robertson, 2020 European Masters and Scottish Open champion, Mark Selby, as well as many more. O’Sullivan has four victories to his name in the tournament’s history having won in 2004, 2005, 2014 and 2016, while Robertson and Selby have won three tournaments between them.
Also in contention for this year’s event is 2021 Masters champion, Yan Bingtao. The 20-year-old Chinese superstar stole the show back in January as he debuted and defeated world number six, John Higgins 10-8 in the final. Yan’s victory meant he was the youngest player to win since O’Sullivan in 1995 and the first debutant winner since Selby in 2008. Yan will take fellow Chinese professional, Xu Si, in section three of the event.
In the build-up of the tournament, there has been a lot of talk and discussion on who people think will be crowned champion this year.
Snooker fan, Iain Graham, says “For me, it has got to be Judd”
“He’s the world number one for a reason” Iain continued.
“He missed the Masters (due to COVID), but he is in great form this season, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he added to his four titles already”
The tournament will be broadcast on Quest (UK) and Eurosport (Europe). The full draw can be found here:
https://www.eurosport.com/snooker/welsh-open/2020-2021/welsh-open-snooker-2021-draw-schedule-results-judd-trump-and-ronnie-o-sullivan-playing_sto8112277/story.shtml