2025 English Open Snooker Preview & Overview
Lewis Watson 
The first Home Series event of the 2025/26 season heads to the Brentwood Ventre this week, as the players compete for the Steve Davis Trophy.
Neil Robertson is defending champion but Judd Trump will unsurprisingly be the favourite with sports betting sites heading into the Open this week.
Free Bets snooker expert Lewis Watson takes a closer look at the competition and the runners and riders.
Overview
The Steve Davis Trophy is up for grabs again in Brentwood this week as the creme de la creme from the World Snooker Tour battle it out in the first of this season’s Home Series events.
After beating Wu Yize 9-7 in last year’s final, Australia’s Neil Robertson heads to Essex as the defending champion and top seed, attempting to win this title for a record third time.
It’s only the 10th edition of this tournament that debuted in 2016 — Robertson, Judd Trump, Mark Selby, Stuart Bingham, Ronnie O’Sullivan and Liang Wenbo are the only previous winners of the ranking event title.
It’s Robertson and China’s Xiao Guodong that arrive in Brentwood as the players in form.
Robertson scooped the Saudi Arabia Masters courtesy of a 10-9 win over a rampant Ronnie O’Sullivan a fortnight or so ago, and Guodong successfully defended his Wuhan Open title with the same scoreline in a final against Gary Wilson.
Format
The tournament will adopt the tiered format that was first trialled in snooker’s Home Nations Series during the 2024/25 campaign. It’s a structure designed to reward ranking while still leaving the door open for shocks.
Round one pits seeds 65 to 96 against those ranked 97 to 128 — a proving ground where lower-ranked hopefuls battle to earn their shot. In round two, the winners step up to face seeds 33 to 64, and by round three, the survivors finally collide with the World Snooker Tour’s top 32.
Everything up to the quarter-finals will be a best-of-seven frames. The last eight stretch to best of nine, the semi-finals climb again to best of eleven, and the final becomes a marathon: a best-of-17 showdown across two sessions.
Rounds
1st Round: Best of 7 frames
2nd Round: Best of 7 frames
3rd Round: Best of 7 frames
4th Round: Best of 7 frames
5th Round: Best of 7 frames
Quarter-finals: Best of 9 frames
Semi-finals: Best of 11 frames
Final: Best of 17 frames
Prize money
Winner: £100,000
Runner-up: £45,000
Semi-final: £21,000
Quarter-final: £13,200
Last 16: £9,000
Last 32: £5,400
Last 64: £3,600
Last 96: £1,000
Highest break: £5,000
Total: £550,400
Top seeds
Neil Robertson (1)
The popular “Thunder from Down Under” looks like a player reborn in 2025.
Neil Robertson endured a testing couple of years on the baize, but after winning the World Grand Prix and English Open last season has flown out of the blocks this term.
A title at the Saudi Arabia Masters for the 43-year-old sees him back up to number three in the world rankings, an impressive climb from 28th at the start of the last campaign.
Robertson tops the bracket in Brentwood and will be eyeing up a potential Last 16 meeting with familiar foe Shaun Murphy if he is to navigate the early hurdles.
Zhao Xintong (2)
There is a target on the back of Zhao Xintong this season.
The reigning world champion may only be 11th in the world rankings, but after serving a 20-month ban from the sport, the Chinese player has plenty of catching up to do in the points department.
The “Cyclone” showed well in a semi-final run at the Shanghai Masters, but after falling early in Saudi Arabia and Wuhan will be eager to put a marker down to the rest of the field at this latest ranking event.
Xintong’s aggressive style on the table can leave him open to counterattacks, but only when he misses. In truth, a free-flowing Xintong rarely looks like putting a ball out of place on the table.
The 28-year-old sits at the bottom of the draw bracket and has tricky assignments in Jack Lisowski and Ali Carter if he is to escape his competitive segment of the field.
Judd Trump (3)
There isn’t much left to be said about Judd Trump.
The “Ace in the Pack” continues to be the most consistent player on tour, unlikely to give up his number one ranking any time soon.
The 36-year-old made the quarters in Shanghai, but third and fifth round exits in Saudi Arabia and Wuhan – two tournaments he has won in the last two years - will have irked the man who rarely spends much time outside of the winner’s circle.
Gary Wilson and Mark Allen are the two big banana skins in Trump’s quarter, as he bids to become the first three-time winner of this event after successes in 2020 and 2023.
Kyren Wilson (4)
If there is a player to consistently lay a glove on Judd Trump this season then it’s expected to be Kyren Wilson.
The 2023 world champion has bagged five major titles since winning in Sheffield, and sitting at number two in the rankings is a serial performer on the tour.
The “Warrior” reached the final here in 2017 but has since failed to reach the last four in any of his subsequent seven attempts.
Wilson has the talented Si Jiahui and maverick Hossein Vafaei in his segment and could well find himself on yet another collision course to meeting Judd Trump in a final.
Xiao Guodong (7)
After going back-to-back in Wuhan, it would be remiss of us not to mention the exploits of China’s Xiao Guodong.
The 36-year-old is finding some beautiful form on the table and maturing into one of the biggest threats in tournament play.
A win in Wuhan last year was supplemented by a runner-up finish at the Champion of Champions event, plus three more ranking semi-finals.
He comes to Essex off the back of a faultless title defence in Wuhan that saw him notch six century breaks en route to a final win over Gary Wilson.
