The 2021 Welsh Open (officially the 2021 BetVictor Welsh Open) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 15 to 21 February 2021 at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales. It was the 10th ranking event of the 2020–21 snooker season and the 30th edition of the Welsh Open, first held in 1992. It was the fifth of six tournaments in the European Series and the fourth and final event of the Home Nations Series. The event was sponsored by sports betting company BetVictor, with the winner being awarded £70,000 from a total prize fund of £405,000.
Shaun Murphy was the defending champion, having won the 2020 event with a 9–1 victory over Kyren Wilson in the final. However, Murphy lost 5–4 to Stephen Maguire in the quarter-finals. Jordan Brown defeated Ronnie O'Sullivan 9–8 in the final to win the first ranking title of his career. Ranked 81st in the world, Brown became the lowest-ranked player to win a ranking event since world number 93 Dave Harold won the 1993 Asian Open.
Format
The Welsh Open began as a ranking tournament in 1992. The 2021 tournament took place at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport between 15 and 21 February, the thirtieth edition of the event. It was the tenth World Snooker Tour ranking competition in the 2020-21 snooker season, following the Snooker Shoot Out and preceding the 2021 Players Championship. It was the fifth of six events in the BetVictor European Series and the fourth and final event of the Home Nations Series.
The defending Welsh Open champion from 2020 was Shaun Murphy who won the final with a 9–1 victory over Kyren Wilson. All matches were best-of-seven until the quarter-finals, which were the best-of-nine, the semi-finals the best-of-eleven. The final was played over two , as the best-of-17 frames. The event was sponsored by sports betting company BetVictor, and broadcast locally by BBC Cymru Wales. It was also broadcast by Quest in the United Kingdom; Eurosport in Europe; CCTV5, Youku, Zhibo.tv and Migu in China; Now TV in Hong Kong; True Sport in Thailand; Sky Sports in New Zealand; DAZN in Canada; and Astrosport in Malaysia. In all other locations it was broadcast by Matchroom Sport.
Prize fund
The event's total prize fund was £405,000, with the winner receiving £70,000. The player accumulating the highest amount of prize money over the six events received a bonus of £150,000. The breakdown of prize money 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
Early rounds
The first two rounds of the competition were played between 15 and 17 February, with rounds three and four on 18 February. Defending champion Shaun Murphy was 20th in the one year ranking event, and required to gain four places to play in the next event, the Players Championship. Murphy reached the last 16 with wins over Zak Surety, Stuart Carrington, Ryan Day and Stuart Bingham. World number one Judd Trump defeated Chinese players Zhao Jianbo and Si Jiahui but lost in the third round to Iranian player Hossein Vafaei 2–4.
Two-time winner Mark Williams defeated Michael White 4–1 in the first round, with an average shot time of only 15 seconds. Williams later commented that "I’m going to play as fast as I can and get in and out as quick as I can. I’m actually going to see if I can get one match down as quick as ten seconds a shot. That’s my goal for the rest of the season." Williams defeated Liam Highfield, Joe Perry and Vafaei to reach the quarter-finals. Mark Selby made a of 134 in his opening round win over Barry Pinches, but missed the final when on route to a maximum break. Selby then defeated Jamie O'Neill, Joe O'Connor and Masters champion Yan Bingtao to reach the quarter-finals. Jordan Brown defeated Luo Honghao, Sam Craigie and Alexander Ursenbacher before beating Mark King 4–3 to reach his second ranking quarter-final of his career.
Ali Carter defeated Daniel Wells and Aaron Hill before beating both John Higgins and Mark Allen to reach the quarter-finals. Ronnie O'Sullivan lost only one frame in his first four matches to reach the quarter-finals, whitewashing three players. Eighth seed Stephen Maguire defeated two Welshmen in Dominic Dale and Matthew Stevens before beating Matthew Selt and Pang Junxu to reach the last eight.