Mumbai: The Grand Hyatt Hotel in Mumbai will stage the Indian Open world ranking event in October.
The venue was announced at a press conference in Mumbai on Thursday, attended by WPBSA Chairman Jason Ferguson and Billiards and Snooker Federation of India President Capt PVK Mohan. The broadcast partner will be NDTV Network who will televise matches live on all days.
The inaugural Indian Open was staged in New Delhi last year and now moves to Mumbai, the country's biggest city. The £300,00 tournament will run from October 13-17. The qualifying rounds are in Barnsley from September 18-21 with the 64 winners to progress to the final stages, joined by six Indian wild cards.
Ding Junhui won the tournament last year, winning the final against Mumbai-born Aditya Mehta, who became the first Indian player to progress beyond the quarter-finals of a ranking event.
Capt PVK Mohan said: "Last year's tournament made a huge impact and with continued guidance from World Snooker this can emerge as one of the circuit's showpiece events."
Jason Ferguson said: "Mumbai is a vibrant and wonderful location for the tournament and a chance for us to experience more of Incredible India. Our greatest ambition is for snooker to become a truly global sport, and India is such an integral part of this aspiration."
"I would like to give particular thanks to Capt Mohan and his dedicated team at the BSFI. They have worked incredibly hard to make the dream of the Indian Open world ranking event into reality. We are delighted to be working alongside them again on the event this year. We have made firm friendships and we hope to be back in India for many years to come."
"Last year's inaugural Indian Open was a great success and it was a hugely significant moment in snooker history, to stage a tournament in the country where the sport was invented in 1875."
Indian cue king Pankaj Advani said: "It's a best-of-seven frame format which throws it wide open. Anyone can win on his day."
