No Home Comforts at the Welsh Open - Can Wales Rectify Abysmal Record?

Mark Williams was the last Welshman to win the event on home soil in 1999 and is the only ever Welsh winner of the competition.

More staggeringly, there has not been a single Welsh finalist since 2003 when Williams lost to Stephen Hendry, and only one other Welsh player has reached the final in its entire history - Darren Morgan in the tournament’s inaugural edition.

How has this snooker aberration come about? This piece looks at a brief history of the Welsh Open, and where it went wrong for local aspirants.

Early Days: Welsh Open Snooker Established in 1992

Long before the tournament was established in 1992, three of the country’s finest players had already experienced their peaks in the sport - Ray Reardon, Terry Griffiths and Doug Mountjoy.

While Griffiths and Mountjoy continued to play until 1997, racking up a few appearances in the Welsh Open’s earlier editions, none of these Welsh greats had a chance to play in the event at their peaks. Despite this, after its initial conception in 1992, the first few iterations at the Newport Centre were showing a glimmer of hope for the revival of Welsh snooker.

Darren Morgan reached the final of the first Welsh Open in 1992, losing out to Stephen Hendry 9-3. Shortly after, Mark Williams entered the scene, winning the tournament in 1996 and 1999 to restore a strong sense of local pride. Another final for Williams in 2003 saw him lose to Hendry, who won the tournament for a third time in 11 years.

However, 22 years on from this moment, not a single Welsh player has reached a Welsh Open final ever since. In contrast, three Welsh players have played in a World Championship final since 2003, showing that the talent has been there, which makes this snooker anomaly all the more intriguing.

Familiar Faces: Welsh Open through the 2000s

Over the next couple of decades, a handful of the game’s greatest players established their dominance at the event.

Since the turn of the century, Ronnie O’Sullivan has won four Welsh Open titles, most notably in 2014 with his 9-3 victory over Ding Junhui. In the final frame of this encounter, O’Sullivan memorably hit a spectacular maximum 147 break to seal victory to a raucous crowd in the Newport Centre.

O’Sullivan most recently won the tournament in 2016 with a 9-5 win over Neil Robertson. However, it is not O’Sullivan who holds the most Welsh Open wins, but John Higgins with five titles spanning from 2000 to 2018.

John Higgins beat Stephen Lee in a final frame decider in 2000 in one of the most memorable finals, before beating Ali Carter, Stephen Maguire, Ben Woollaston and Barry Hawkins across the next 18 years to cement his legacy as the most decorated player in the tournament’s history.

Paul Hunter sealed a second Welsh Open title in 2002 with a narrow victory over Ken Doherty, who also holds two titles. Neil Robertson won the 2007 event, completing a double in 2019 with a victory over Stuart Bingham.

2020 onwards: The Recent Rise of Unexpected Champions

While the competition was largely dominated by the sport’s finest players in the 2000s and 2010s, the last few editions have provided several shock winners.

In 2021, Jordan Brown won his first ranking title with a stunning deciding frame victory over O’Sullivan, before the following year Joe Perry became another unlikely victor with only his second ranking title in a 30-year career. Then lightning struck again at the next edition, with Robert Milkins defying the odds to secure only his second-ever ranking title of a long career on the sport’s top tier.

Last year, Gary Wilson beat Martin O’Donnell to claim his third ranking title - a fourth consecutive final won by a player outside the world’s top ten.

As the tournament continues to produce unexpected champions, it begs the question, where are all the Welsh players in this underdog environment? They are frankly nowhere to be seen; since 2004 there has only been one Welsh player to even reach the semi-finals - Mark Williams on two occasions (2015 & 2021).

As the 2025 Welsh Open commences, it will be interesting to see if this trend remains the same. This year there will be 10 Welsh players participating in the last 64, including an all-Welsh affair between Jak Jones and Matthew Stevens. Surely, it is just a matter of time before home comforts return to Llandudno.

For the full draw and results from the 2025 Welsh Open, please visit our tournament information centre here.