The draws are out for the World Open and Welsh Open, with Ronnie O’Sullivan signed up to compete in both tournaments in 2024.
The Rocket has opted out of a number of events this season, including the recent Scottish Open where he was due to play Liam Graham in the opening round and he is set to play the young Scot again at the Welsh Open.
Graham will be delighted with another crack at the world number one after hitting out at his late withdrawal from Scotland, labelling O’Sullivan ‘disrespectful’ for pulling out with little notice.
That match will be played at Venue Cymru in Llandudno, with the top 16’s matches held-over to the main stage, while qualifiers are played in Barnsley a couple of weeks earlier.
However, O’Sullivan does face qualifying for the World Open, needing to win a match in Barnsley in January to make it to Yushan in China in March.
The seven-time world champion will play Alfie Burden in South Yorkshire, with only the defending champion Judd Trump, world champion Luca Brecel and the two highest ranked Chinese players guaranteed to have their matches played at the main stage.
The World Open qualifiers run from 22-24 January in Barnsley, with the main stages from 18-24 March in Yushan.
The Welsh Open qualifiers are from 25-27 January in Barnsley, followed by the main event in Llandudno from 12-18 February.
World Open Qualifiers
Monday 22 January
10am
Fan Zhengyi v Dylan Emery
Dominic Dale v Marco Fu
Ricky Walden v Peng Yisong
Iulian Boiko v Baipat Siripaporn
Zhou Yuelong v Jiang Jun
Jamie Clarke v Liu Hongyu
Tian Pengfei v Mink Nutcharut
2.30pm
David Grace v Rebecca Kenna
Mark Selby v Xing Zihao
Matthew Stevens v Hammad Miah
Ryan Day v Andrew Higginson
Joe O’Connor v Aaron Hill
Yuan Sijun v Alexander Ursenbacher
Pang Junxu v James Cahill
7pm
David Gilbert v Anton Kazakov
Jamie Jones v Rod Lawler
Joe Perry v Martin O’Donnell
Neil Robertson v Victor Sarkis
Chris Wakelin v Andy Hicks
Robbie Williams v Andy Lee
Anthony Hamilton v Jenson Kendrick
Tuesday 23 January
10am
Gary Wilson v Stuart Carrington
Kyren Wilson v Jimmy White
Si Jiahui v Stan Moody
Jackson Page v Liam Graham
Lyu Haotian v Ashley Carty
Xiao Guodong v Sean O’Sullivan
Ali Carter v Ahmed Aly Elsayed
2.30pm
Jak Jones v Ryan Thomerson
Elliot Slessor v Reanne Evans
Robert Milkins v Muhammad Asif
Sam Craigie v Ken Doherty
Hossein Vafaei v Liam Pullen
Noppon Saengkham v Himanshu Jain
Shaun Murphy v Mohamed Ibrahim
7pm
Liam Highfield v Daniel Wells
Ronnie O’Sullivan v Alfie Burden
Michael White v Stephen Hendry
Oliver Lines v Louis Heathcote
Tom Ford v Ma Hailong
Barry Hawkins v Dean Young
Mark Joyce v Oliver Brown
Wednesday 24 January
10am
Ben Woollaston v Ben Mertens
Mark Davis v Adam Duffy Head
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh v Long Zehuang
Wu Yize v Julien Leclercq
Jimmy Robertson v He Guoqiang
Cao Yupeng v John Astley
Xu Si v Andrew Pagett
Stuart Bingham v Ishpreet Singh Chadha
2.30pm
Jack Lisowski v Lukas Kleckers
Scott Donaldson v David Lilley
Anthony McGill v Ashley Hugill
John Higgins v Ross Muir
Mark Allen v Andres Petrov
Graeme Dott v Ian Burns
Stephen Maguire v Mostafa Dorgham
Held-over matches
Judd Trump v Rory Thor
Sanderson Lam v Wildcard
Zhang Anda v Allan Taylor
Matt Selt v Wildcard
Ding Junhui v Zak Surety
Jordan Brown v Wildcard
Luca Brecel v M Phetmalaikul
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