The World Open

John Higgins is the champion after beating Joe O'Connor 10-6 in the final.
Breaks of 52, 82, 62, 63, 78, 70, 68, 57, 94 and a closing 100 sealed the win.

Class act. Well done him.

Well done both of them

Ronnie O'Sullivan is in the house for the World Open and he came close to making a 147 after potting 14 reds with 14 blacks. he potted the 15th red, but when he attempted to get position on the yellow following the 15th black, the cue ball went in off in the baulk pocket. That put him 4-1 up against Ross Muir, and a 114 break in frame 6 gave him a 5-1 victory.

Mark Selby withdrew. Before the event, he had the most number of centuries this season with 63. Zhao Xintong whitewashed Fuyuan Han 5-0, and made 2 centuries, putting him ahead of Selby with 64.

Wins for Judd Trump, John Higgins, Xiao Guodong, Jackson Page, Thepchaiya, Zhou Yuelong, Zhang Anda and Jack Lisowski.

Chris Wakelin withdrew, giving Artemijs Zizins a bye. Jak Jones withdrew, giving Luca Brecel a bye.

Hawkins has withdrawn, hooray! However, he was still smug about being guaranteed to play in the Tour Championship. Carter lost to Martin O'Donnell .

Poor David Lilley led Tubbs 4-1, but lost 5-4 . Higgins was 4-1 down to Stan Moody, but levelled at 4-4, making a 135 break in the process; but Moody made a 65 break in the decider to win 5-4.

Ishpreet withdrew giving Ronnie a bye. David Gilbert also withdrew. I wonder if all these withdrawals are anything to do with America's war with Iran making it difficult for players to get to China.

Zhao Xintong made another 2 centuries to increase his tally of the season to 66, making one of them in the decider to beat Long Zehuang 5-4.

Wins for Judd Trump, Mark Williams, Gary Wilson, Xiao Guodong, Marco Fu, Wu Yize and Kyren Wilson.

Ronnie looking sharp as he whitewashed Matthew Selt 5-0, making a 138 in the process. He's got Tubbs in the next round after Tubbs disposed of Xu Si.

Zhao Xintong powered to a 5-1 victory over Sam Craigie, making another 2 centuries in the process. Thepchaiya also made a couple of centuries in disposing of Michael Holt 5-1. Judd beat Jackson Page 5-2.

Zhang Anda won the all chinese battle with Xiao Guodong 5-2. Wu Yize beat Stuart Bingham 5-4, making a decisive 71 break in the final frame, and ending Bingham's hopes of getting into the top 16 for the World Championship. Artemijs Zizins beat Luca Brecel 5-1.

Wins for Zhou Yuelong, Gary Wilson and Kyren Wilson.

(18-03-2026 16:29 )Joannis Wrote:  and ending Bingham's hopes of getting into the top 16 for the World Championship.

Good

Moody's triumph yesterday didn't get to last long.

I saw Mark Allen made short work of Jack Lisowski too.

Fantastic 5-3 for Ronnie over Tubbs! Tubbs made a 139 break to level at 1-1, Ronnie made a 125 break to go 3-2 up, but when Tubbs made a 76 break to level at 3-3, Ronnie made breaks 89 and 76 to claim victory.

Wu Yize beat Kyren 5-2, thus ending Kyren's hopes of playing in the Tour Championship.

Latvian Artemijs Zizins was denied playing in a ranking tournament quarter final after Ryan Day made a decisive break of 69 in the decider to beat him 5-4.

Mark Allen whitewashed Zhou Yuelong 5-0, but although he made a 129 break in the first frame, the other frames were close, and Zhou was unlucky not to register a frame on the board.

Judd Trump beat Robbie Williams 5-2. From 2-2 at the interval Judd won 3 frames in a row with runs of 106, 77 and 94.

Thepchaiya in a quarter final! You better believe it. He beat Marco Fu 5-2, making a 134 break in the process.

Gary Wilson played the game and not the player, as he made 3 centuries in beating Zhao Xintong 5-2.

Iranian Hossein Vafaei completed the line-up for the quarters with a narrow 5-4 victory over Zhang Anda.

Quarter final line-up:

Mark Allen v Wu Yize
Ryan Day v Ronnie O'Sullivan
Judd Trump v Hossein Vafaei
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh v Gary Wilson

Impressive for Gary; also nice to see a few quieter names like Vafaei, Day and Thepchaiya in the last 4 as well.

EDIT - or even the last 8 (ahem)

Ronnie O'Sullivan makes a 153 break!!! From a free ball Ronnie potted 14 reds and 14 blacks before a positional shot ended up with the black on the cushion. He potted the last 2 reds with pinks, and completed the clearance on the colours, even potting the black on the cushion. Ronnie now has the record, the previous highest break in a professional tournament was Jamie Burnett's 148 in the 2004 UK Championship. Ronnie made another couple of centuries as he whitewashed Ryan Day 5-0.

Wu Yize almost copied Ronnie's feat. He made a 140 break, and he very nearly whitewashed Mark Allen. A colours clearance by Allen in frame 5 gave him a consolation frame before Wu Yize finished him off in frame 6. Mark Allen has already done enough to guarantee he gets a place in the Tour Championship.

Ronnie v Wu, what a semi-final that's going to be!