The 2021 British Open (officially the 2021 Matchroom.live British Open) was a professional snooker event played from 16 to 22 August 2021 at the Morningside Arena, Leicester, England. It was the 2021 edition of the British Open event, and the first since the 2004 British Open. It was the second ranking event of the 2021–22 snooker season, following the 2021 Championship League and preceding the 2021 Northern Ireland Open. It was broadcast by ITV Sport in the UK, and sponsored by Matchroom Sport. The winner received £100,000 from a total prize pool of £470,000.
All rounds in the tournament were played after a random draw made under a single-elimination tournament format with no seeded players. The first four rounds, from the last 128 to the last 16, were played as best-of-five matches, the quarter-finals and semi-finals as best-of-seven-frame matches, and the final played as the best-of-eleven frames. John Higgins, the defending champion from 2004, lost 1–3 to Ricky Walden in the third round. Mark Williams defeated Gary Wilson 6–4 in the final to win the 24th ranking title of his career. The event featured 32 century breaks, including two maximum breaks. Higgins made his 12th maximum break in professional competition in the first frame of his first-round win over Alexander Ursenbacher, and Ali Carter made his third maximum break in the second frame of his fourth-round match against Elliot Slessor.
Format
The British Open is a snooker event first held in 1980 as the British Gold Cup. The event changed names to the British Open for the 1985 event won by Silvino Francisco. The 2021 tournament was held from 16 to 22 August 2021 at the Morningside Arena in Leicester, England. It was the first British Open event in 17 years, the last being played in 2004. It was the second ranking event of the 2021–22 snooker season, following the 2021 Championship League, and preceding the Northern Ireland Open. John Higgins was the defending champion, having defeated Stephen Maguire 9–6 in the 2004 final, to win his 16th ranking title. The event was broadcast by ITV4 in the United Kingdom, Eurosport in Europe; Liaoning TV, Superstar online, Kuaishou, Migu, Youku, Zhibo.tv and Huya Live in China; Now TV in Hong Kong; Sports cast in Taiwan; True Sports in Thailand; DAZN in Canada, Astrosport in Australia and by Matchroom Sport in all other territories. Matchroom also sponsored the event.
The event featured all 128 participants from the World Snooker Tour, no seedings, and a random draw after each round. Matches were played as the best-of-five , until the quarter-finals and semi-finals, which were played as best-of-seven-frame matches. The final was a best-of-eleven.
Prize fund
The tournament had a total prize fund of £470,000, the winner receiving £100,000. A breakdown of prize money for this event is shown below:
Winner: £100,000
Runner-up: £45,000
Semi-final: £20,000
Quarter-final: £12,000
Last 16: £7,000
Last 32: £5,000
Last 64: £3,000
Highest break: £5,000
Total: £470,000
Summary
The first round was played from 16 to 18 August, as the best of five frames. On the first day, defending champion Higgins made his 12th competitive maximum break, in the first frame of his 3–1 win against Alexander Ursenbacher. At 46 years and 90 days, Higgins broke his own record as the oldest man to make a maximum break in competition. He had previously been the oldest player to make one after completing a maximum at the Championship League in October 2020. Higgins became the player with the second most maximum breaks, behind Ronnie O'Sullivan with 15, and now ahead of Stephen Hendry.
World number one Judd Trump trailed 1–2 to Mitchell Mann, but won 3–2. Despite making two century breaks, Kyren Wilson was defeated by Ashley Hugill 2–3. Mark Allen and Reanne Evans, who had been in a relationship between 2005 and 2008, met in the first round. The players, who had been in legal battles over child maintenance, had their first professional meeting at the event. Evans refused to shake hands with Allen before the match, and led 2–1, but missed the and Allen completed a clearance to win the contest. The finalists of the 2021 World Snooker Championship, Shaun Murphy and Mark Selby met in the first round. World champion Selby won the match 3–2. Four-time winner Hendry met Chris Wakelin in the first round. Hendry won the match 3–2, his first main tournament win since rejoining the tour in 2020 after retiring in 2012. Lukas Kleckers won the final two frames against Masters champion Yan Bingtao to win 3–2.