English Open Snooker 2024 Predictions: World Champ can win again

After returning from the high stakes Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters, the players return to more familiar territory this week as they travel to Brentwood for the fourth ranking event of the season, the English Open.

As always we have our snooker expert Dean Strand (@DSSnookerTips) on hand, with his comprehensive preview and English Open Snooker Predictions.

History, Location and Format

The English Open is a ranking tournament that was introduced by the WST in 2016, as part of the Home Nations Series.

Entering its ninth year, the tournament has been held all over England but has since settled at the Brentwood Centre in Essex and this year's event runs from Monday 16 to Sunday 22 September 2024. The event will be broadcast on Eurosport and discovery+ in the UK.

The field consists of 64 players, including 32 qualifiers and the top 32 seeds will be automatically seeded into the last 64 of the tournament.

The defending champion is Englishman Judd Trump, picking up his second Steve Davis Trophy, after beating Zhang Anda from China, 9-7 in the final.

Prize Money

English Open Snooker Odds

1 pt  Kyren Wilson to Win Outright @ 10/1

The bottom half of this draw looks considerably easier than the top half and with that in mind my first pick is Kyren Wilson at odds of 10/1.

Out of the players in the bottom half of the draw, Neil Robertson is the shortest price at odds of 8/1. I have backed Robertson a couple of times lately and he’s definitely showing signs of returning to form, but to have him shorter than the current World Champion looks a little crazy to me.

First time World Champions can sometimes struggle in the following season, but Kyren has already put away any doubts there with superb performances in Xi’an, beating Ronnie O’Sullivan and Judd Trump in the semis and final to win the Xi’an Grand Prix.

His record in this event is decent with two quarter finals and a final appearance in the seven previous editions and as second seed he has a good draw this week.

0.5 pts Elliot Slessor e/w (1/2, 2 places) to win Outright @ 125/1

0.5 pts Elliot Slessor to win Quarter 1 @ 28/1

Judd Trump and Mark Williams lead the way in Quarter 1 betting but these are two players I’m keen to avoid this week.

Playing a deciding frame in the Saudi Masters final with £500,000 last week is bound to take something out of the players mentally and playing for much smaller prize money this week could see either player struggle to find the same motivation, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see either player withdraw.

Slessor has been steadily improving as a player over the last few years and now sits at an all time high of 35th in the World Rankings.

He’s enjoyed a good start having qualified for every event so far and comes into this one on a high of having picked up his highest pay check last week, beating Zhou Yuelong and Ali Carter to reach the last 16 in Saudi Arabia.

He's already reached a semi final and quarter final this year and 28/1 for another semi final appearance looks a good price to me.

0.5 pts Pang Junxu e/w (1/2, 2 places) to win Outright @ 50/1

1 pt Pang Junxu to win Quarter 3 @ 10/1

In Quarter 3 odds of 10/1 for Pang Junxu appeal.

Seeded through the last 64 and if both seeds win he could potentially meet Luca Brecel in the last 32.

Brecel might be the higher ranked player due to his World Championship win last year but he has done very little since and actually hasn’t won a match in just under six months, his last win coming in the World Open in March.

Pang himself beat Brecel comfortably just last week in Saudi Arabia 5-2.

Pang has made a good start to the season too, only losing three matches, two against Mark Selby and one against Si Jiahui and two of these defeats have been in deciding frames.

Check out the rest of our Snooker Betting Tips here including Dean's daily World Championship picks.