It was the second ranking event of the 2021–22 snooker season, following the 2021 Championship League and preceding the 2021 Northern Ireland Open.

Mark Williams defeated Gary Wilson 6–4 in the final to win the 24th ranking title of his career.

Higgins made his 12th maximum break in professional competition in the first frame of his first-round win over Alexander Ursenbacher, and Ali Carter made his third maximum break in the second frame of his fourth-round match against Elliot Slessor.

[5][2] It was the second ranking event of the 2021–22 snooker season, following the 2021 Championship League, and preceding the Northern Ireland Open.

[4][6] John Higgins was the defending champion, having defeated Stephen Maguire 9–6 in the 2004 final, to win his 16th ranking title.

[9] The event featured all 128 participants from the World Snooker Tour, no seedings, and a random draw after each round.

[11] On the first day, defending champion Higgins made his 12th competitive maximum break, in the first frame of his 3–1 win against Alexander Ursenbacher.

[13] At 46 years and 90 days, Higgins broke his own record as the oldest man to make a maximum break in competition.

Higgins became the player with the second most maximum breaks, behind Ronnie O'Sullivan with 15, and now ahead of Stephen Hendry.

[16][23] The finalists of the 2021 World Snooker Championship, Shaun Murphy and Mark Selby met in the first round.

[25] Lukas Kleckers won the final two frames against Masters champion Yan Bingtao to win 3–2.

[29] Ali Carter described playing reigning world champion Selby as a "dream draw",[28] and won the match 3–0.

[31] Higgins lost the third frame of the match after missing a shot, blaming the red ball having a stray hair on it.

[36] Williams played Zhang Jiankang in the fourth round, where he was the sole player from the top 16 remaining.

[35] Zhang led 2–1 and was within four pots of winning the match, but missed a routine black ball, and eventually lost 2–3.

[11] Gilbert played Wilson, and led both 2–0 and 3–2, but lost the match after missing a pot using a long rest.

Slessor met Zhou Yuelong and won 4–3 to reach his second ranking event semi-final.

[44] Aged 46, Williams was the third oldest person to win a ranking event, only behind Ray Reardon in 1982 (50) and Doug Mountjoy in 1989 (46).