The Northern Ireland Open is a professional ranking snooker tournament held in Belfast as part of the four-event Home Nations Series.

The players compete for the Alex Higgins Trophy, named for the late two-time world champion who was born and raised in Belfast.

Yan came close to breaking Ronnie O'Sullivan's record of being the youngest player to win a ranking event, which had stood for 24 years, but he narrowly lost to Mark Williams 8–9 after having led 8–7.

The 2020 tournament was staged outside Northern Ireland, at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom on the 2020–21 snooker season.

[4] In 2021, Mark Allen became the first Northern Irish player to win the event, knocking out defending champion Judd Trump in the quarter-finals and beating John Higgins 9–8 in the final, after trailing 6–8.