Tournament information | |
---|---|
Dates | 12–18 December 2022 |
Venue | Brentwood Centre |
City | Brentwood |
Country | England |
Organisation | World Snooker Tour |
Format | Ranking event |
Total prize fund | £427,000 |
Winner's share | £80,000 |
Highest break | Mark Williams (WAL) (147) |
Final | |
Champion | Mark Selby (ENG) |
Runner-up | Luca Brecel (BEL) |
Score | 9–6 |
← 2021 2023 → |
The 2022 English Open (officially the 2022 BetVictor English Open) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 12 to 18 December 2022 at the Brentwood Centre in Brentwood, England.[1] The seventh ranking event of the 2022–23 season, it was the third tournament in the Home Nations Series, following the Northern Ireland Open and the Scottish Open and preceding the Welsh Open. It was the fourth of eight tournaments in the season's European Series. Qualifiers took place from 25 to 30 October at the Morningside Arena in Leicester, although matches involving the top 16 players in the world rankings were held over to be played at the final venue. Organised by the World Snooker Tour and sponsored by BetVictor, the tournament was broadcast by Eurosport in the UK and Europe. The winner received £80,000 from a total prize fund of £427,000.
On the first day of the tournament, the WPBSA suspended Yan Bingtao from professional competition, making him the seventh player suspended from the tour since October amid a major match-fixing investigation.[2][3]
Neil Robertson was the defending champion, having defeated John Higgins 9–8 in the 2021 final.[4] However, he was beaten 4–6 by Mark Selby in the semi-finals, meaning that he lost at the semi-final stage in each of the season's first three Home Nations events.[5] Selby recorded his first win over Robertson in two years, after seven consecutive losses to him,[6] and reached his first ranking final since winning the 2021 World Championship.[7] He went on to win the event, defeating Luca Brecel 9–6 in the final to capture his 21st ranking title.[8] He became the first player to win the English Open twice, and the second player, after Judd Trump, to win four Home Nations tournaments.[9]
Mark Williams made the tournament's highest break, the third maximum break of his career, in the fourth frame of his quarter-final match against Robertson.[10] Aged 47 years and 270 days, he became the oldest player to make an officially recognised maximum break in professional competition.[11][12]