The 2015 Welsh Open (officially the 2015 BetVictor Welsh Open) was a professional ranking snooker tournament held at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff from 16 to 22 February 2015. The tournament was staged in Cardiff for the first time since 2004, having moved from Newport.

Ronnie O'Sullivan was the defending champion, but he lost 3–4 against Matthew Stevens in the last 32.

The best-performing Welsh player was Mark Williams, who reached the semi-finals of the tournament for the first time in 12 years. He lost 5–6 to Ben Woollaston, who reached the first ranking final of his professional career.

John Higgins defeated Woollaston 9–3 in the final to win the Welsh Open for a record fourth time and claim his first ranking title in two and a half years.

Prize fund The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:

Winner: £60,000 Runner-up: £30,000 Semi-finals: £20,000 Quarter-finals: £10,000 Last 16: £5,000 Last 32: £2,500 Last 64: £1,500

Highest break: £2,000 Total: £300,000

Main draw 128 players started the tournament, with the first four rounds played over the best of 7 frames. The quarter finals were played over 9 frames with the semi-finals over the best of 11. The final was over 17 frames.

Top half Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Bottom half Section 5

Section 6

Section 7

Section 8

Finals

Final Final: Best of 17 frames. Referee: Marcel Eckardt Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff, Wales, 22 February 2015. Ben Woollaston 3–9 John Higgins Afternoon: 4–120 (84), , , , , , , Evening: 5–97, 34–69, , 59 Highest break 105 0 Century breaks 1 3 50+ breaks 6

Century breaks

140, 101 Luca Brecel 137, 135, 134, 105, 103, 101 John Higgins 136 Matthew Stevens 135, 131, 120, 114 Mark Selby 133, 101 Mark Allen 132 Joe Perry 131, 116, 113, 103 Neil Robertson 130 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 125, 106, 101 Matthew Selt 122 Peter Ebdon 119 Alex Borg 117, 106, 102 Shaun Murphy 116, 101 Stephen Maguire 115, 105, 107 Marco Fu 112 Ding Junhui 110, 104 Judd Trump 109 Anthony McGill

108, 105, 103 Mark Williams 108, 103 Ben Woollaston 108 Ricky Walden 107 Chris Wakelin 106 Ronnie O'Sullivan 104 Jimmy White 104 Elliot Slessor 104 Dechawat Poomjaeng 103 Mark Joyce 103 Gerard Greene 103 Ali Carter 102 Fergal O'Brien 102 Jamie Jones 101 Rod Lawler 100 Ken Doherty 100 Jamie Cope 100 Alan McManus

References