The Chinese love snooker. I understand if this comes as a shock to people. Since Ding Junhui beat Stephen Hendry in the 2005 China Open as a wildcard, China got hooked. Since the first snooker tournament in mainland China (1986 China Masters), the Chinese have been booming with players, money, and events.
Currently, there are ten events in Asia, branching out from India to Thailand to the new Macau Masters, which will take place in October. Didn’t know Macau had their own flag until writing this, I must admit. Anyway, China currently boasts four ranking events and four non-ranking events. This is excluding the World Cup, which takes place every two years. Amazing how far they have come.
But which are the best ones? Which Chinese events have the prestige, the glamour, the money, and the massive trophy? I will do my personal Top 5 Chinese events. Who knows? In the next 20 years, China might host their own World Championships! But just to put you out of your misery, Haining Open has not made the cut. I’m sorry about that.
5. China Championship
The China Championship in Guangzhou has a very short history. It started in 2016 as a non-ranking event where the Top 10 players, Top 4 on the one-year prize money ranking list and two Chinese Billiards and Snooker Association nominations. Obviously. It was described as a “roaring success,” helped by the £200,000 cheque won by John Higgins, who beat Stuart Bingham in the final. Higgins went on to say that:
Last year, it transformed into a ranking event for the first time. It was bombarded with players including champion Higgins, calling the China Championship as a ‘big event’. The China Championship has a claim to being the first event to have a champion from Continental Europe! Luca Brecel put in some terrific performances by beating Marco Fu, Ronnie O’Sullivan, and Shaun Murphy to win the (decreased prize money for some odd reason) £150,000 crown.
However, there are some limitations and most of them come from being a new ranking event. Brecel’s victory has the only thing going for the China Championship. It isn’t memorable or famous and continues to suffer from low crowd levels. However, Guangzhou is the perfect place to hold a snooker event due to it being one of the most populated cities in China. Clearly, there is a huge amount of potential but there needs to be a lot of work to be done.
This includes an increase in the quality of snooker and audience members and quickly. Because of its rapid transformation of being a ranking event after one year, we are unsure as to why it deserves such a status other than being just another Chinese snooker event. Still, will be interesting what the event is like currently now but let’s see how it goes…
Well pleased to get through that game,conditions very poor and water leaking on table so had to switch tables and done me a favour, Sams a class act and will be a major player soon.
— mark king (@markking147) September 24, 2018
4. Shanghai Masters
If I started this blog and constructed this countdown two years ago, this would’ve taken my No. 1 spot. Without a doubt. What pegged this back to the No.4 spot is because it’s been butchered by its transformation from a ranking to a non-ranking event. I’m probably in the minority in thinking this.
It was first introduced in 2007 as a ranking event and since then, it became a firm favourite for a number of players and fans alike. There are a number of memories of the tourney to behold. This is the event where Dominic Dale, Ricky Walden, and Kyren Wilson won their first ranking titles. This is where John Higgins produced a phenomenal comeback from 5-0 and 7-2 down to win the decider against Judd Trump in 2012 at 10-9.
Shanghai is the birthplace of the first ever ranking final that featured two Chinese players. No-one seemed to have a bad word to say about Shanghai as well – a brilliant place which fantastic facilities. What I’m trying to say is that this event has a lot of history behind it with a tiered qualifying system that separates itself from the 128-man draws. Walden and Wilson won the trophy despite going through the qualifying rounds, which makes their win more phenomenal!
Sooner China Champs comes round the better. Personally I think 16 hand picked in an event in front of 20 people with no big outsiders or stories is about as tedious as snooker gets regardless of money on offer
— Deco800 (@Deco800_) September 13, 2018
Unfortunately, it changed its format in 2017 to the flat draw that Barry Hearn was very much in favour of. That made the unique Shanghai Masters like every other ranking event other than the World Championships. This year, however, it changed to a non-ranking event with the Top 16 players with 8 wildcards. To me, it felt like they threw their history in the bin – as if they are building their reputation from scratch again. Others didn’t like the idea of shoving wildcards in an apparently prestigious event and the facilities don’t seem to be ready.
This is a new one for me , the table I played on today wasn’t even in the same building as the match table, it was on floor 2 of the hotel 😀😀😀😀😀😀😀. #thatsallimgunnasayonthematter
— MARK WILLIAMS M.B.E (@markwil147) September 13, 2018
Am I being too harsh and over-dramatic about the revamped Shanghai Masters? Mark Williams still considers it as one of the biggest events of the season earlier this year. The fact that the Top 16 are guaranteed to participate and a larger winner’s prize of £200,000 puts it leagues above other events. Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan also regards it as a “major and prestigious event” and his final between him and Barry Hawkins was at a great standard. Of course, it is early days for the event and it could become a fantastic event. But right now, I am still quite skeptical of China’s ‘new Masters’, as anticipated by Jason Ferguson.
3. World Open
The World Open is an event I previously never took too much notice of. It does have a long history, though under many guises. Previously known as the Professional Players Tournament, the LG Cup and the Grand Prix since 1982 in Britain, the World Open kept its name from 2010. However, the last six World Open events took place in China so let’s not dwindle too long on that!
The problem with the World Open is that it is one of the first ranking events of the season. Since most top professionals weren’t to their best from the get-go, this gave players outside of the Top 8 such as Ali Carter and more recently David Gilbert a taste of ranking finals.
Hangzhou Railway Station, next stop YuShan Snooker World Open pic.twitter.com/rAr8I6svlc
— jason ferguson (@jasonferguson5) August 5, 2018
However, this year’s event certainly makes me feel more positive about the World Open. Young prospects in Jack Lisowski and Noppon Saengkham were breaking through; more established players such as Xiao Guodong and Gary Wilson continue to threaten; and an incredibly engrossing final. David Gilbert played very well indeed up till he was 9-5 ahead when Mark Williams played out of his skin and with plenty of bottle to clinch the decider. Despite the ceremony and introduction that took as long as Rod Lawler on a bad day, the organisers presented themselves very well. With the number of volunteers on show, it shows that they want to take their event up another gear.
Class from David Gilbert after he lost out in Yushan yesterday. pic.twitter.com/8KJ1J2toyV
— Matt (@ProSnookerBlog) August 13, 2018
One of the main critiques of this event is that Yushun is not very accessible, especially when it comes to travel and for just being in the middle of nowhere. BUT FEAR NOT. According to this snippet with Jason Ferguson below, they are building a ‘new international snooker city’ with a museum and an academy. In other words: ‘the billiard sport capital of the world.’ Ferguson points out that this shows Yushan’s ambition to be alongside Beijing and Shanghai. It details how Yushan was chosen to be a ranking event and the plans – check it out! Could be quite the contender to be a fantastic event for people to flock to!
2. International Championship
Forgive me for being pedantic, but why is this the ‘International Championship?’ Since 2012, all editions took place in only two cities in just China (Chengdu and Daqing). Not very ‘International’ is it? Anyway…more on this brilliant tourney!
Expectations were high was it was first introduced, with talk over the event being its first overseas major, with Ding Junhui noting that it will be a great success, especially for the Chinese supporters and players. Barry Hearn emphasises that the event demonstrates ambition and further says:
The first couple of finals went off with a bang. Judd Trump won the inaugural International Championship, beating Neil Robertson from 6-8 down to win 10-8 in a high-quality final of 13 +50 breaks and one century. Judd became No.1 in the world as a result. The next final was even better, with 13 +50 breaks and seven centuries between finalists Marco Fu and Ding Junhui. Ding won the decider and became the first player to win three consecutive ranking titles since Stephen Hendry in 1993. At that time, the winner’s prize of £125,000 was one of the largest out of all the ranking events, eventually raised by £50,000 in 2017.
The top players seem to reach the finals on a regular basis, with match-ups such as Walden/Allen and Selby/Ding. Since 2012, only one player outside the Top 16 made it to the final and that was when David Gilbert fought but lost to John Higgins in 2015. In the same event when Selby won the 2017 crown, Kyren Wilson made the first maximum in tournament history, making the 133rd official maximum break against Martin Gould – his first maximum in fact!
What does also separate this event from the others is the first that the semi-finals are best-of-17-matches, unlike the World Open and China Championship. This is something for the purists at least! In summary, this event has history, an impressive trophy, high-quality matches and finals, and famous winners. It also seems to do good to the community It has been confirmed that Daqing will host the International Championship till 2020 and the sport was introduced to schools, oil field workers and blue chip companies – not bad really!
1. China Open
The China Open seems to have everything. Before going into that, I did a quick poll on Chinese ranking events. It seems the majority of voters seem to agree too!
Which do you think is THE top China #snooker ranking event to win now? #147sf
— Cluster of Reds (@clusterofreds1) September 17, 2018
Surprisingly, the China Open was dropped from the snooker calendar at one point. World Snooker dropped the event in 2002 after a few one-off ranking and non-ranking events. Then came a young and unproven teenager, who entered the event as a wildcard in 2005. He beat Mark Davis, whitewashed Peter Ebdon, won the decider against Stuart Bingham, beat Paul Hunter, whitewashed former world champion Ken Doherty and beat legend Stephen Hendry 9-5 in the final in the Chinese capital of Beijing. The teenager’s name was Ding Junhui.
You can argue that this tournament win alone was the start of China’s obsession with snooker. The match was watched by 110 million people on China’s national sports channel CCTV-5. The final was upgraded to a best-of-19s match from 2008. It also provided a springboard for Judd Trump – he won his first ranking title in 2011, which followed a mind-blowing performance to reach the World Championship final!
HOWEVER. Last year World Snooker raised the stakes of the China Open where no Chinese event has before. The total prize money leapt from £510,000 (2017) to £1,000,000 (2018). The winner’s kitty jumped from £85,000 (2017) to £225,000 (2018). The semi-finals are now best-of-19s and the final is the best-of-21. Barry Hearn described it as a “flagship event” and this shows how far it has come. This intensifies the pressure of qualifying for the Crucible too. For some players, this is the last chance to qualify for the World Championships as a Top 16 player. More money gives ample opportunity to do it. And in Beijing too!
Ending
So there you have it! The China Open is the best event in China for many reasons. It’s in the capital; it has the excitement of the Race to the Crucible; it’s the last ranking title before the World Championships; has a fantastic range of winners; long matches; lots of money; and as of last year, is now home to two maximums, which are scored by Ronnie O’Sullivan and Kyren Wilson. This is THE event where one of China’s sporting heroes pulled off a miracle win. If that isn’t enough prestige for a Chinese snooker event, then I do not know what is!
Wowee.
