The 2016 Welsh Open (officially the 2016 BetVictor Welsh Open) was a professional ranking snooker tournament held at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff from 15 to 21 February 2016. It was the sixth ranking event of the 2015/2016 season.
The defending champion John Higgins lost 1–4 against Michael White in the last 16.
Playing Barry Pinches in the first round, Ronnie O'Sullivan declined the opportunity to make a maximum break, describing the £10,000 prize money on offer as "too cheap". He potted the pink off the penultimate red and made a 146. World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn called O'Sullivan's actions "unacceptable" and "disrespectful".
Ding Junhui made the 117th official maximum break in the sixth frame of his quarter-final against Neil Robertson. It was Ding's sixth maximum break in professional competition.
O'Sullivan met Robertson in the final. From 2–5 behind, O'Sullivan won seven frames in a row, finishing with a break of 141 in the 14th frame, to defeat Robertson 9–5 and equal John Higgins's record of four Welsh Open titles. It was O'Sullivan's 28th ranking title, which put him in joint second place with Higgins and Steve Davis for the number of career ranking titles.
Prize fund The breakdown of prize money is shown below:
Winner: £60,000 Runner-up: £30,000 Semi-finals: £20,000 Quarter-finals: £10,000 Last 16: £5,000 Last 32: £3,000 Last 64: £2,000
Highest break: £2,000 Total: £324,000
The "rolling 147 prize" for a maximum break was £10,000 (2nd ranking event since it was last won, £5,000 added for each ranking event)
Main draw 128 players started the tournament with 12 tables in the arena in the early stages.
Top half
Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
Section 4
Bottom half
Section 5
Section 6
Section 7
Section 8
Finals
Final Final: Best of 17 frames. Referee: Terry CamilleriMotorpoint Arena, Cardiff, Wales, 21 February 2016. Neil Robertson 5–9 Ronnie O'Sullivan Afternoon: 64–5, 78–0 (78), , , , , , Evening: 39–94 (57), 42–78, , , , 78 Highest break 141 0 Century breaks 1 3 50+ breaks 7
Century breaks
147, 126, 120 Ding Junhui 146, 141, 132, 132, 131, 124, 112, 110, 102, 101 Ronnie O'Sullivan 141, 140, 126, 107 Neil Robertson 139, 130 Joe Perry 139 Peter Ebdon 137, 115, 105, 104, 100 John Higgins 135, 125, 124, 105 Mark Allen 135, 108 Shaun Murphy 134 Mark Davis 133 Allan Taylor 133 Eden Sharav 131 Matthew Stevens 130 Martin O'Donnell 128, 115 Mark Selby 127 Rod Lawler 126, 112 Anthony Hamilton 124, 112 Judd Trump 118, 101 Michael White 116, 101 Marco Fu
115 Jack Lisowski 115 Tom Ford 114, 105 Robin Hull 113 Lee Walker 113 Robbie Williams 112 Itaro Santos 111 Kurt Maflin 110, 109 Alan McManus 107 Anthony McGill 107 Martin Gould 107 Michael Holt 106, 103 Liang Wenbo 105 Dechawat Poomjaeng 105 Michael Wasley 104 David Grace 104 Gary Wilson 103 David Gilbert 103 Mike Dunn 102 Ashley Hugill
References