Snooker fans have given the thumbs up for the British Open after its return to the snooker calendar this week.

Barring the Championship League, the British Open is the first ‘proper’ ranking event of the new season.

The week has seen two maximum breaks thanks to John Higgins and Ali Carter, an intriguing encounter between former lovers Reanne Evans and Mark Allen and random draws each round creating a new kind of excitement to begin the season.

And snooker fans seem to be impressed with the tournament making its comeback to the snooker schedule since 2004.

On the Facebook group ‘Snooker Fans’ one fan’s post said: “Some snooker tournament this British Open is turning into with only one player of the top 16 into the quarter-final which is Mark Williams.

“I think the format of this tournament with matches being the best of 5s up to the quarter-finals and an open draw for each round has made this tournament a huge success.”

Both the quarter-final and semi-final matches will be played out on Saturday before the final takes place on Sunday.

The winner of Sunday’s final will pocket £100,000 and with just one top 16 player left in the draw, a life-changing day could be in store for one of the players.

The quarter-final draw is…..

Lu NING vs Jimmy ROBERTSON

Zhou YUELONG vs Elliot SLESSOR

Mark WILLIAMS vs Ricky WALDEN

David GILBERT vs Gary WILSON

What are your thoughts on this week’s British Open?