Northern Ireland Open 2026 Preview: Four of Six Titles in One Quarter
Update, 16 October: Wu Yize and He Guoqiang have withdrawn for medical reasons (WST). Scott Donaldson and Elliot Slessor receive byes to the last 32.
The Northern Ireland Open 2026 starts on Sunday 18 October at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast and runs to Sunday 25 October. Every match is best of 7 frames until the quarter-finals, which are best of 9; the semi-finals are best of 11 and the final best of 17. The winner gets £100,000 from a £550,400 prize fund.
Six ranking events have been played this season, and the draw has dropped four of those six titles into the same quarter.
The bottom quarter
Start at the bottom of the draw. Wu Yize, the world champion, who won the Shenzhen Open a week ago. Jak Jones, who won the Championship League and the British Open and is the only player with two ranking titles this season. Chang Bingyu, the Wuhan Open champion. Then John Higgins, Zhou Yuelong, Noppon Saengkham, who reached the China Open final, and Mark Allen, who has won this event twice.
Only one of them can reach the semi-finals, and the collisions start early: Higgins and Jak Jones could meet in the last 32, as could Wu and Saengkham, and Zhou and Allen. Jones, seeded only 30th, opens against Tom Ford.
The two other title winners, Mark Selby (China Open) and Ali Carter (English Open), sit in the same quarter as Neil Robertson. The quarter above them, the one that belongs to the defending champion, has no ranking winner from this season at all.
Lisowski's soft-looking path
Jack Lisowski is seeded first because he holds the title. He beat Judd Trump 9–8 in last year's final for his first ranking title, after knocking out Kyren Wilson 5–3 and Zhou 6–1.
His season since has been thin. He has won six matches and lost seven since June. In four of the six ranking events he entered he lost his first match, including qualifying for the International Championship, where Ashley Carty beat him 6–5. His best run was the British Open quarter-final, where Selby whitewashed him 5–0.
The Form Rating has him 24th. The draw is kind, though. He opens against Huang Jiahao, then meets Stephen Maguire or Anthony McGill. The highest-rated player in his quarter is Shaun Murphy, fourth, who has his own problem this season with closing out big matches. Kyren Wilson, the 2024 champion, is in there too.
Trump, Zhao and O'Sullivan in one section
The third quarter holds the top two in the Form Rating. Judd Trump has the best record in Belfast of anyone in the field. He won it in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2023, and lost the last two finals, so he has played in six of the last eight. He has won 18 of 23 matches this season and the Shanghai Masters, but still no ranking title.
Zhao Xintong, in the other half of the section, is a possible quarter-final opponent who has beaten him lately. Since June 2025 they are 2–2: Zhao won the Tour Championship final 10–3 in April, and Trump won their British Open quarter-final 5–1 in September.
Ronnie O'Sullivan is in the same section and could meet Zhao in the last 16. He lost three Belfast finals in a row to Trump, from 2018 to 2020. He starts against Cheung Ka Wai, who won two deciders in qualifying, against Artemijs Žižins and Oliver Lines, to get here.
The Allen question
Belfast's own two-time champion is in the draw against Jordan Brown, the other Northern Irishman, a repeat of last year's quarter-final, which Allen won 5–2. Whether he plays is another matter. Allen has not played since losing his Crucible semi-final 17–16 to Wu on 30 April. He has withdrawn from the China Open, Wuhan Open, British Open and English Open, all for personal reasons.
Our prediction for that match gives Allen 73%, built on his form before the break. It can't see five and a half months without a competitive frame, so treat it with care.
Schedule
The last 64 runs over three days (UK times).
- Sunday 18 October: Lisowski v Huang 13:00, Selby v Louis Heathcote about 15:00, Robertson v Ricky Walden 19:00, Murphy v Liam Davies about 21:00.
- Monday 19 October: Wu v Scott Donaldson 13:00, O'Sullivan v Cheung about 15:00, Trump v Martin O'Donnell 19:00, Jak Jones v Ford 19:00, Higgins v Liam Highfield about 21:00.
- Tuesday 20 October: Chang v Ryan Day 10:00, Zhou v Michael Holt 13:00, Allen v Brown 13:00, Zhao v Gao Yang about 15:00.
The full schedule with a prediction for 24 of the 32 matches has every start time. Best of 7 is short, and last year eight of the 24 first-round matches we hold went to a deciding frame (why short matches produce upsets).