The Gibraltar Open 2021
The 2020/21 snooker season is nearing its end with just three more ranking tournaments to be played before the big finale – the snooker World Championship. The first of the last three is to be played from the 1st to 7th of March and it is the Gibraltar Open. Unfortunately, it will not be played in Gibraltar, but in the home of the Covid-19 written snooker season – Milton Keynes Marshall Arena in the south-east of England. As you probably know, almost every single ranking and non-ranking tournament in the 2020/21 season was played here, apart from the Welsh Open.
The Gibraltar Open is a relatively young ranking competition, the first being held in the 2015 with the £251,000 total prize money and the winner netting a hefty £50,000 for his troubles. Besides that, there is also a winner prize of £150,000 waiting for the winner of the BetVictor European Series – the series of six tournaments with Gibraltar Open being the last one. Judd Trump leads the way to that prize money with Mark Selby being the biggest and only threat to that £150,000 bonus.
Judd Trump is also the defending champion winning the last seasons edition of the tournament in the gateway to the Mediterranean. This competition has had 5 different winners in 5 seasons of it being played, every single one of them being the legend of the sport. Marco Fu was the first Gibraltar Open champion followed by Shaun Murphy, Ryan Day, Stuart Bingham, and the aforementioned Judd Trump.
The return of The King
Even though 4 of these 5 players are also in this years draw (Marco Fu is not playing this season due to the safety of his family and eye problems) the biggest star and the biggest talking point of the Gibraltar Open is not any of them. It is the comeback of one of the biggest stars most successful snooker players of all the – the seven-times World Champion Stephen Hendry. He is returning to the professional snooker table for the first time since his retirement in 2012. His return was announced in the September of 2020 but was not official until the Welsh Open where he wasn’t allowed to participate due to the “glitch” on the entry system, postponing his return to the Gibraltar Open.
Of course, it wouldn’t be realistic to expect Hendry challenging for the winner’s trophy considering he is taking this time as a “warm-up” for the 2021 World Championship. That being said, it surely will be interesting seeing the record nine-seasons number one and the youngest World Champion in history of the sport battling the younger generations and the up and coming legends of the sport. The honor of being the first opponent to Stephen Hendry holds the currently ranked 25th Matthew Selt.
Favorites
Honorable mentions: Kyren Wilson, John Higgins, Yan Bingtao, Jack Lisowski.
Judd Trump – the defending champion is dominating the scene in the Marshall Arena winning 4 ranking tournaments this season. Unfortunately for him, amongst them there are no Triple-crown tournaments. Trump tested positive for Covid-19 so he couldn’t participate in the Masters and then lost in the Final of the UK Championship to Neil Robertson. This sounds like we are criticizing him, but you know a player is good - when you list the things he didn’t win instead of the ones he did. Trump is surely the dominant force of todays snooker, last season he had an all-time record season winning six ranking titles and cashing in over £1 million and he continued that form this season becoming the world number one. In the Gibraltar Open Trump is looking to get his 22nd ranking career title cementing his place in the snooker history book even more.
Ronnie O’Sullivan – does he even need introducing at this point? The Rocket Ronnie O’Sullivan is the most controversial, most talented, most popular, craziest, and ultimately the best snooker player that ever graced the game. This season isn’t one of his best – “just” three finals and every one of them lost. The most shocking of these three is a 9-8 loss to 81st ranked Jordan Brown, but this means very little because we know what kind of magic Ronnie is capable of and with the World Championships approaching it would be ludicrous not to include him as one of the favorites.
Mark Selby – The Jester from Leicester is probably the most in-form player this season behind Trump, the three-time World Champion also played three finals but won two of them and is looking for another one on the Gibraltar Open.
Neil Robertson – The Thunder from Down-Under as they call him holds 5 Triple-Crown titles winning all of them at least once. This season he won his third UK Championship beating Trump in the final. In the Gibraltar Open he is looking for his 20th career ranking title. Currently he is tied with Selby on 7th in the all-time list of ranking titles.