Judd Trump will aim to retain his Northern Ireland Open title when the tournament returns to the Waterfront Hall in Belfast from 20-27 October.
The seventh ranking event of the season and the second of the Home Nations Series will see the world’s best compete for the Alex Higgins Trophy and an increased first prize of £100,000.
Having been contested for the first time in 2016, the NI Open is now in its ninth year and uniquely has only ever been one by left-handers – Trump winning four times and Mark Allen twice, plus single successes for Mark King and Mark Williams.
As the story of the 2024 edition prepares to unfold, BBC Sport NI takes you through some of the talking points ahead of the big Belfast showpiece.
Will Ronnie O’Sullivan play?
Ronnie O’Sullivan has not played since losing in the first round of the English Open on 17 September, sitting out both the British Open and the Wuhan Open.
The seven-time world champion could make his return in Belfast and has been drawn to face Long Zehuang in his first round match.
The world number five lost to Judd Trump in three successive NI Open finals between 2018 and 2020 but withdrew in advance from last year’s event for medical reasons.
Top Trump?
Trump is the most successful competitor in the event’s history, his 9-3 victory over Chris Wakelin in the 2023 final making it four wins in the last six editions for the current world number one.
The 35-year-old has shown good form so far this season, winning the Shanghai Masters and the inaugural Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters to help him secure a healthy lead at the top of the one-year ranking list.
Trump has also been a finalist in the first running of the Xi’an Grand Prix and a semi-finalist at the recent Wuhan Open.
The English player will commence the defence of his title against Ishpreet Singh Chadha of India.
Allen to delight home fans again?
The support of the Belfast crowd will be mostly behind home favourite Mark Allen as he bids for a third triumph in the event, having memorably taken back-to-back titles in 2021 and 2022.
The Antrim player was knocked out in the last-64 stage last year, losing to Andres Petrov.
The world number three has made the quarter-finals of the English Open and the semi-finals of the British Open this term but withdrew from the Wuhan Open because of a family illness.
Allen, who was ranked world number one after the completion of the World Championship in May, will begin his NI Open campaign this time around against China’s Liu Hongyu.
Big names return
The run-up to last year’s event was marred by the controversy surrounding the absence of five leading players who had opted to take part in an exhibition in Macau instead.
Ultimately, that event was moved to December to avoid a clash of dates with the NI Open, but having not entered, John Higgins, Luca Brecel, Mark Selby, Ali Carter and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh all missed the Belfast tournament.
All five return to participate in 2024 as part of a stellar field which also includes former winner and Saudi Arabia Masters runner-up Williams, this season’s English Open winner Neil Robertson and last week’s Wuhan Open victor Xiao Guodong.
Selby is another who has been in the winner’s enclosure this season, defeating Higgins in the British Open final in September.
World champion Kyren Wilson, also a winner this year in the Xi’an Grand Prix, is also in the line-up, along with losing Shanghai Masters finalist Shaun Murphy.
Luca Brecel, the 2023 world champion, is back in action after failing to qualify for the Wuhan Open, the Belgian much in need of some victories to help retain his professional tour card.
Tournament details and 147s
The Waterfront Hall has hosted six of the previous eight Northern Ireland Opens, the only exceptions being the inaugural running at the Titanic Exhibition Centre and the 2020 version, which was staged under controlled conditions at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Matches in the first, second and third rounds will all be played over the best of seven frames, with the quarter-finals on Friday 25 October best of nine, the semi-finals on Saturday best of 11 and Sunday’s final the best of 17.
The winners’ cheque has increased from £80,000 last year, with the runner-up prize increased by £10,000 to £45,000.
Four players have compiled maximum 147 breaks in the tournament so far – Higgins in 2016, Stuart Bingham in 2019, Trump in 2020 and Allen in 2021.
