Dates 15–21 February 2016 City Cardiff Organisation(s) WPBSA | Venue Motorpoint Arena Country Wales Format Ranking event | |
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.
Contents
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 for this year is shown below:
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 start the tournament with 12 tables in the arena in the early stages.