Mark Allen beat Zhou Yuelong in last year’s final in Belfast (Picture: WST)
The Northern Ireland Open has developed into one of the highlights of the snooker calendar and it is back, with qualifiers in Sheffield this week before the main event in Belfast from Sunday.
Mark Allen, the local hero, has lifted the trophy in each of the last two years, beating Zhou Yuelong last year and John Higgins in the 2021 final.
‘I have great memories of the last two years, playing in front of the home fans is something special,’ said the world number four.
‘It will just nice to be there and enjoy it rather than hating it as I did in the first few years I played in this event. I felt the pressure too much and I was playing for the wrong reasons. I have nothing more to prove now and I have repaid the fans now for all the heartbreak I caused them for a few years!’
He will be back to try and make it a hat-trick, but there is no shortage of quality trying to stop him.
However, there will be no Higgins, Mark Selby, Luca Brecel, Ali Carter or Thepchaiya Un-Nooh after the fallout of the exhibition in Macau that was scheduled for during the Northern Ireland Open, but has now been moved to December, but the ‘Macau Five’ had already withdrawn from the Belfast draw.
There might be some big names missing, but the likes of Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump, Mark Williams, Neil Robertson and Shaun Murphy are all in attendance.
The qualifiers run from 17-20 October at Ponds Forge, Sheffield, with the main stages beginning on Sunday 22 October in Belfast.
Northern Ireland Open Qualifiers Draw and Schedule
Tuesday 17 October
10am
Fan Zhengyi vs Liu Hongyu
Long Zehuang vs Anton Kazakov
Andy Hicks vs Jiang Jun
1pm
Allan Taylor vs Dominic Dale
Alfie Burden vs Mostafa Dorgham
Reanne Evans vs Hammad Miah
4pm
Liam Graham vs Jackson Page
Andrew Higginson vs Sean O’Sullivan
Andrew Pagett vs Lukas Kleckers
7pm
Dylan Emery vs Martin Gould
Joe O’Connor vs Zak Surety
Rod Lawler vs Baipat Siripaporn
Wednesday 18 October
10am
Mohamed Ibrahim vs Dean Young
Scott Donaldson vs Mark Davis
Victor Sarkis vs Ross Muir
1pm
Jamie Clarke vs Alfie Davies
Liam Highfield vs Ken Doherty
James Cahill vs Duane Jones
4pm
Jordan Brown vs Stuart Carrington
Adam Duffy vs Julien Leclercq
Liam Pullen vs Robbie Williams
Shoot Out champion Chris Wakelin is in action in the qualifiers (Picture: Getty Images)
7pm
Chris Wakelin vs Anthony Hamilton
Manasawin Phetmalaikul vs Barry Pinches
Matthew Stevens vs Stephen Hendry
Thursday 19 October
10am
Xu Si vs Alexander Ursenbacher
Xiao Guodong vs Yuan Sijun
1pm
Marco Fu vs Jamie Jones
Pang Junxu vs Ian Burns
Noppon Saengkham vs Himanshu Jain
4pm
Matthew Selt vs Andy Lee
David Lilley vs Aaron Hill
Jimmy Robertson vs Sydney Wilson
7pm
Graeme Dott vs Oliver Lines
Martin O’Donnell vs Daniel Wells
Joe Perry vs Ishpreet Singh Chadha
Friday 20 October
10am
Zhou Yuelong vs Stan Moody
Mink Nutcharut vs Michael White
Peng Yisong vs He Guoqiang
1pm
Stephen Maguire vs Fergal O’Brien
Si Jiahui vs Zhang Anda
Lyu Haotian vs Ashley Carty
4pm
Andres Petrov vs Sanderson Lam
Stuart Bingham vs Ashley Hugill
7pm
John Astley vs Thor Chuan Leong
Jak Jones vs Oliver Brown
First round matches held over to main venue
Sunday 22 October
10am
Robert Milkins vs Cao Yupeng
Ryan Day vs Ma Hailong
Neil Robertson vs Wu Yize
Neil Robertson is looking to improve on a slow start to the season (Picture: Getty Images)
1pm
Ricky Walden vs Ben Woollaston
Judd Trump vs Jenson Kendrick
Kyren Wilson vs Sam Craigie
Not before 2pm
Jack Lisowski vs Rebeccan Kenna
Robbie McGuigan vs Muhammad Asif
Mark Williams vs Tian Pengfei
7pm
Mark Allen vs Ben Mertens
Shaun Murphy vs Ryan Thomerson
David Gilbert vs Joel Connolly
Not before 8pm
Gary Wilson vs Louis Heathcote
Anthony McGill vs Jimmy White
Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Ahmed Aly Elsayed
Monday 23 October
10am
Hossein Vafaei vs Mark Joyce
Barry Hawkins vs Elliot Slessor
Tom Ford vs Haydon Pinhey
How to watch the Northern Ireland Open
The qualifiers are being streamed on Discovery+ in the UK, with the main stages on Eurosport and Discovery+
Prize money
Winner: £80,000
Runner-up: £35,000
Semi-final: £17,500
Quarter-final: £11,000
Last 16: £7,500
Last 32: £4,500
Last 64: £3,000
Highest break: £5,000
MORE : Northern Ireland Open draw confirms ‘Macau 5’ will not play the event
MORE : Judd Trump wins inaugural Wuhan Open to claim two titles in two weeks in two continents
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The Pistol goes for the Belfast hat-trick.
