The 2019 English Open (officially the 2019 19.com English Open) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 14 to 20 October 2019 at the K2 Leisure Centre in Crawley, England. It was the fourth ranking event of the 2019–20 snooker season and the first of the 2019 Home Nations Series. The event was the fourth edition of the English Open, first held in 2016. Betting company 19.com sponsored the tournament.
A total of 71 century breaks were made during the tournament. Tom Ford made the highest break of the event, his fifth career maximum break, and the second 147 of the season, in the deciding frame of his 4–3 win over Shaun Murphy in the last 16.
Stuart Bingham, who defeated Mark Davis 9–7 in the 2018 final was the defending champion.[5] All matches were played as the best of 7 frames until the quarter-finals, at which point the number increased: 9 in the quarter-finals; 11 in the semi-finals; and the best of 19 frames in the final.[6] Chinese sports prediction website 19.com sponsored the event,[7] which was broadcast by Quest in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland; in Europe by Eurosport; NowTV in Hong Kong; Superstars Online, Youku and Zhibo.tv in China; DAZN in Canada; Truesport in Thailand and Sky Sport in New Zealand.[8]
Prize fund
The event's total prize fund was a total of £405,000, with the winner receiving £70,000. The breakdown of prize money for the tournament is shown below:[9]
The quarter-finals were played on 18 October as the best of 9 frames.[6] Ford completed a 5-0 whitewash over Tian.[13][14] Allen defeated Walker, who won only frame 5.[14] Selby defeated Mei, who had led by three frames.[15] The match between Gilbert and Walden went to a deciding frame as Gilbert won 5–4.[13] The semi-finals were played as the best of 11 frames on 19 October.[6] The first was held as Gilbert defeated Ford 6–3.[16][17] Allen and Selby faced off in the second semi-final, as Selby led 3–1 but later trailed 3–5.[17] Selby took the last three frames to win the match 6–5.[17]
The final was played on 20 October between Selby and Gilbert, as the best of 17 frames held over two sessions.[6][18] Selby won the first five frames with breaks of 88, 68, 79 and 85 before Gilbert won frame six with a century break.[18] Selby made a break of 130 in frame seven, before a 97 in the last frame of the session put him 7–1 up.[18] Selby won both of the two frames in the second session, with a century break in frame 10 to win 9–1.[19][20] After the win, Selby commented, "It's been a long time since I won my last tournament .. I've been second guessing myself wondering if I am doing things right."[21] He also commented that Gilbert would win a ranking event soon.[22] This was the 16th career ranking win for Selby.[23]
Main draw
The results from the event are shown below. Seeded players have their seedings in brackets. Players highlighted in bold denote match winners.[6]
A total of 71 century breaks were made during the event. The highest was a maximum break made by Ford in the final frame of his 4–3 win over Murphy.[24]
