The defending champion was Ronnie O'Sullivan, who defeated Kyren Wilson in the 2017 event.[2] However, O'Sullivan would lose to Mark Davis 1–6 in the semi-final. O'Sullivan was highly critical of the venue stating "The worst part was not the smell of urine..."This is about as bad as I've ever seen. It's a bit of a hellhole....I don't know what this gaff is, but I've just done an interview and all I can smell is urine."[3]
Stuart Bingham won his fifth professional ranking title with a 9–7 victory against Mark Davis, who had reached his first ever ranking final at the age of 46, playing in his 28th season on the professional tour. Bingham became the first player to win two Home Nations Series events.[4]
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh made the second maximum break of his career in the opening frame of his 4–1 first round win against Soheil Vahedi.[5] On the following day Ronnie O'Sullivan made the 15th maximum break of his career in the final frame of the second round whitewash of Allan Taylor.[6] This was the fourth time that two maximums were made at the main stage of a ranking tournament, and the third time in just over half a year.
Prize fund
The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:[7]
