Who does Ronnie O’Sullivan face at British Open snooker? Mark Williams defends title, full draw

World champion Ronnie O’Sullivan has been handed a match with Swiss No. 1 Alexander Ursenbacher as he begins his quest for a second British Open title at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.

O’Sullivan is certain to be in action at the finals venue on the opening day of the tournament with the record 39-time ranking event winner chasing a second British Open, 28 years after he defeated James Wattana 9-4 for his 1st title triumph in 1994.

He lost 6-5 to Ursenbacher in the last 64 of the UK Championship in 2020 and suffered a 4-2 defeat to the world No. 62 in the last 32 of the 2019 Welsh Open, but completed a 3-1 win over the former English Open semi-finalist at the Championship League earlier this month.

Judd Trump meets Si Jiahui in his tournament opener with four-time world champion Mark Selby drawn against the rejuvenated Ricky Walden, who has moved up to 18th in the world after slumping to 46 two years ago amid restrictive back problems.

All matches are drawn at random and are contested over the best-of-seven frames with the quarter-finals increasing to the best-of-nine frames.

The semi-finals are the best of 11 frames with the best-of-19 frame final on Sunday 2 October.

British Open draw

• Mark Allen v Stuart Carrington
• Alexander Ursenbacher v Ronnie O’Sullivan
• Anthony Hamilton v Jimmy White
• Xiao Guodong v David Lilley
• Jak Jones v Andrew Pagett
• Ricky Walden v Mark Selby
• Elliot Slessor v Sean O’Sullivan
• Zak Surety v Ross Muir
• Peter Lines v Robert Milkins
• Michael Judge v Craig Steadman
• Andy Lee v Barry Pinches
• Fraser Patrick v Alfie Burden
• Michael White v Noppon Saengkham
• Fergal O’Brien v Chang Bingyu
• Matthew Stevens v Stephen Maguire
• Fan Zhengyi v Jamie Clarke
• John Astley v Rod Lawler
• Peng Yisong v Dylan Emery
• Duane Jones v Barry Hawkins
• Mark Joyce v Asjad Iqbal
• Cao Yupeng v Marco Fu
• Ben Woollaston v James Cahill
• Joe O’Connor v Chris Wakelin
• Jamie O’Neill v David Grace
• Shaun Murphy v Gary Wilson
• Jenson Kendrick v Zhou Yuelong
• Mark King v Lyu Haotian
• Tom Ford v Mitchell Mann
• Mark Davis v Kyren Wilson
• Gerard Greene v Sanderson Lam
• David Gilbert v Aaron Hill
• Hammad Miah v Ali Carter
• Zhang Jiankang v Reanne Evans
• Joe Perry v Hossein Vafaei
• Liang Wenbo v Dean Young
• Adam Duffy v Ian Burns
• Rebecca Kenna v Ryan Day
• Jamie Jones v Scott Donaldson
• Anthony McGill v Wu Yize
• Yuan Sijun v Anton Kazakov
• Ng On Yee v Ken Doherty
• Dominic Dale v Jack Lisowski
• Tian Pengfei v Sam Craigie
• Julien LeClercq v Muhammad Asif
• Matthew Selt v Lu Ning
• Judd Trump v Si Jiahui
• Pang Junxu v Jordan Brown
• Thepchaiya Un-Nooh v Martin Gould
• Allan Taylor v Lukas Kleckers
• Jimmy Robertson v Louis Heathcote
• Ryan Thomerson v Ben Mertens
• Ding Junhui v Oliver Lines
• Yan Bingtao v Oliver Brown
• Bai Langning v Zhao Xintong
• Himanshu Jain v Xu Si
• Mink Nutcharut v Chen Zifan
• Stephen Hendry v Zhang Anda
• Andy Hicks v John Higgins
• Lei Peifan v Stuart Bingham
• Ashley Hugill v Robbie Williams
• Mark Williams v Andres Petrov
• Zhao Jianbo v Jackson Page
• Graeme Dott v Luca Brecel
• Liam Highfield v Li Hang

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