Professional stars aplenty to feature at the 2024 Vienna Snooker Open
Luca Brecel is set to be the headline act for the big pro-am in Austria
One of snooker’s most prestigious independent pro-am tournaments, home hero and defending champion Florian Nuessle will aim to retain his title at the 2024 Vienna Snooker Open held between May 9-12.
Played at the KÖÖ 7 Snooker Club in Austria’s capital city, a plethora of famous snooker names from the professional circuit will join several top cueists from the amateur scene in an 80-player field competing for a slice of the 10,000 Euros prize fund.
First held in 2010, the event returned last year following a hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Stephen Lee, Simon Bedford, Mark King (twice), Peter Ebdon (twice), David Grace, Michael Georgiou and Mark Joyce are all previous winners of the accolade. Nuessle became the first champion from Austria following a 5-0 victory over Lukas Kleckers in the 2023 final.
Also at last year’s installment, Tom Ford compiled a 147 and Luca Brecel took part in the groups phase just days after memorably winning the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre. The Belgian is set to feature again this time round, and is one of 17 different nationalities to be represented in the four-day competition.
Other players from this season’s professional circuit in the draw are: Alexander Ursenbacher, Kleckers, David Grace, Liam Pullen, Ross Muir, Ben Woollaston, Mark Joyce, Mark Davis, Elliot Slessor and Liam Graham.
Former professional event winners Nigel Bond and Rory McLeod are also scheduled to feature.
The 80 players will be split into 20 round robin groups of five. The top three players from each group advance to the knockouts with the group winners going straight into the round of 32.
Admission throughout the 2024 Vienna Snooker Open is completely free. For further details on the event, please visit their website here.