Snooker's all-time greats are heading for Cheltenham in September and the draw is out now. Tickets are on sale for just £18 and many sessions are close to selling out, so book fast now that the draw has been announced.
The main event runs from September 22 to 28, 2025, at the superb Centaur Arena at Cheltenham Racecourse. The British Open is a historic ranking event first staged in 1985. In all, 128 players will compete for the Clive Everton Trophy, and the event has a random draw which means the biggest stars can clash from the opening round.
Mark Selby beat John Higgins 10-5 in the final last year and will start his title defence against former UK Championship semi-finalist David Grace. In the pick of the first round ties, Mark Williams will take on Si Jiahui, a repeat of their 2024 Crucible clash which Si won 10-9. World number one Judd Trump will meet Aaron Hill, while world number two Kyren Wilson will be up against fellow top-16 player Chris Wakelin.
All matches involving the top 16 seeds (plus two more as there are two matches where top 16 seeds have drawn each other) have been held over to Cheltenham and these ties will take place on the opening day on Monday September 22. They are:
Mark Selby v David Grace
Judd Trump v Aaron Hill
Mark Williams v Si Jiahui
Zhao Xintong v top-up player
Ronnie O'Sullivan v Sanderson Lam
Kyren Wilson v Chris Wakelin
John Higgins v Mark Davis
Shaun Murphy v Ross Muir
Neil Robertson v Tom Ford
Mark Allen v Jiang Jun
Barry Hawkins v Daniel Wells
Xiao Guodong v Haydon Pinhey
Zhang Anda v Duane Jones
Wu Yize v Pang Junxu
Ali Carter v top up player
Gary Wilson v Hossein Vafaei
The match schedule for Cheltenham will be announced soon. All other first round ties will take place at the qualifying event at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester from June 25-28 - for the match schedule click here. Notable fixtures include...
Stephen Maguire v Marco Fu
Luca Brecel v Alexander Ursenbacher
Jack Lisowski v Liam Highfield
Ryan Day v Stuart Bingham
Stan Moody v Zhou Yuelong
David Gilbert v Matthew Selt
Details of how to watch the qualifiers will be announced soon.