Who qualified for the 2026 Northern Ireland Open snooker?

Like all the other Home Nations Series events, the Northern Ireland Open currently uses a tiered draw system meaning the top 32 seeds all automatically go straight through to the main event at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast which runs between October 18-25.

In the round of 64 there, these seeds will face the 32 qualifiers who emerged from the preliminaries that recently took place at the Mattioli Arena in Leicester.

Jordan Brown - who is battling to avoid tour relegation come the end of the season - qualified for his home professional event after a 4-0 win over Belgium’s Julien Leclercq.

Former Welsh Open champion Brown enjoyed a brilliant run at the Waterfront last year, whitewashing then reigning World Champion Zhao Xintong and defeating Shaun Murphy en route to the quarter-finals where he was stopped by compatriot and close friend Mark Allen.

As the draw has it, Brown is scheduled to meet former world number one Allen in the last 64 next month, although Allen’s participation is doubtful having not featured on the World Snooker Tour this season due to personal reasons.

Several youngsters have made it through to the party in the Northern Irish capital.

Rookie professional Oliver Sykes has qualified for his first venue with a tour card. The 20-year-old Englishman dismissed Alexander Ursenbacher 4-0 in the opening round before ousting Zak Surety 4-3 at the final hurdle.

A debut Crucible qualifier back in the spring, the last few months haven't gone according to plan for Liam Pullen, but he might be getting things back on track as he registered consecutive 4-0 wins over Paul Norris and Ben Woollaston to progress to Belfast.

Having achieved a personal best with a quarter-final finish at last week's English Open, Welshman Liam Davies has kept up his momentum with a brace of wins to qualify, as too did Chinese teenage rookie Wang Xinbo.

The Republic of Ireland's number one player Aaron Hill will be making a trip up north; he pipped Ross Muir by the odd frame to advance.

Former World Champion Luca Brecel - who is currently projected 67th on the end of season provisional rankings list - crafted breaks of 96, 99, 75, and 54 in defeating Mitchell Mann, 4-1.

A semi-finalist at the British Open earlier this month, Liam Highfield is Belfast-bound, so is the much-improved Yao Pengcheng who dispatched Stan Moody, 4-0.

Adding to the cosmopolitan flavour are Hong Kong's Ka Wai Cheung, Poland's Mateusz Baranowski, and Thailand's Thanawat Tirapongpaiboon.

Cheung navigated deciding frame finishes in successive rounds against Artemijs Zizins and Oliver Lines, meanwhile Tirapongpaiboon - back on snooker's top flight this term for the first time in over a decade - was impressive as he recovered from a 2-0 deficit to deny Jackson Page, 4-2.

The legendary Jimmy White won his opening round encounter with Sean O'Sullivan, 4-1, but having led 2-1, he was stopped by Xu Si, 4-2. Xu will face Ali Carter at the main arena; Carter won the first leg of this campaign's four-pronged Home Nations Series at the English Open in Brentwood.

The other players to negotiate qualifying at the Mattioli were: Daniel Wells, Tom Ford, Martin O'Donnell, Ryan Day, Robbie Williams, Gao Yang, Ricky Walden, He Guoqiang, Matthew Stevens, Jamie Jones, Louis Heathcote, Matthew Selt, Sam Craigie, Alfie Burden, Ben Mertens, Anthony McGill, Huang Jiahao, Michael Holt and Scott Donaldson.

For the full last 64 draw in Belfast, visit snooker.org here.