Cazoo British Open champion Ryan Day is hoping to retain his title this season after a relaxing summer.
The 2023 Cazoo British Open runs from September 25 to October 1 at The Centaur, Cheltenham Racecourse. All of snooker’s biggest stars are in the field. Book tickets here.
Day, 43, won the trophy after defeating Mark Allen 10-7 in Milton Keynes. A year on in Cheltenham, he hopes to be the first ever player to retain the competition.
“I haven’t put much thought into targets, but I’d love to give it a good go,” said the Welshman. “I’ve been away this summer to Tenerife and Menorca with the family, and now it’s time to get back on the table and get to work.
“I haven’t practised a lot here (his father’s house in Llangeinor, Bridgend), and haven’t really felt the urge to,” Day told WST. “But September has come around and I need to get into a rhythm.
“I love the venue, we’ve played there before and it is really nice. If everything clicks and I play well again, who knows? I’m going to go there and put up as good a fight as I can.”
The win at Milton Keynes came as a surprise as Day sat 27th in the rankings at the time. He reminisced fondly on the occasion which he could share with his family.
“It seems like yesterday,” he reflected. “I remember beating Gerard Greene and could have easily been right up against it, then played a lot better against Jimmy Robertson. I played one good game, one bad game all throughout the tournament.
“At the time, Mark was the form player in the world. I came out, stuck with him through the early parts of the match and came out on top at the end.
“My daughter had just completed her GCSEs, and had a weekend job which they wouldn’t let her have the morning off from, so she could only come at around 12:30. If I’d have played as I had the evening before, she might have missed it completely!
“It was 4-4 at the interval, I said hello and sorted them out. Luckily, I played well and they saw it live. To have them come out after for the presentation was very special and I’ll never forget it.”
It was Day’s fourth ranking title, having already been victorious in the Riga Open (2017), Gibraltar Open (2018), and Snooker Shoot Out (2021).
Looking ahead to the new season, the world number 16 added: “To be honest, I’m not one for looking forward too much and I prefer to stay in the present. Obviously I’d like to get into the Masters and perform well at the Crucible next year, but other than that I want to progress as much as I can. I’d like to move up the rankings and win some silverware. That’s easier said than done.
“The standard at the very top now maybe hasn’t improved since I started, but the depth of quality certainly has. There are no easy games now.”
You can watch the full interview with Day here:
