The Sanyuan Foods China Open will feature eight invited wildcards alongside the top 16 and 16 qualifiers heading to Beijing next month.
Six Chinese players, a Thai and an Indian will take on the eight lowest ranked qualifiers in the wildcard round.
The Chinese players are Tian Pengfei, Yu Delu, Tang Jun, Lu Chenwei, Li Yan and Shi Shuamgyang.
Supoj Saenla will represent Thailand and Manan Chandra plays for India.
The tournament gets underway on March 29 with Peter Ebdon defending his title.
The format can be viewed on worldsnooker.com here.
I was hoping they had done away with this. Absolutely ridiculous concept and grossly unfair on the qualifiers it affects.
ReplyDeleteHi Dave,
ReplyDeleteNot that I agree with it, but why wasn't Wenbo's 4th round qualifying match moved to China?
It cannot be because of the wildcards, as Ding was a top32 player when he played his final qualification match v adrian gunnell a few seasons back.
Any explanation?
Also, any news on tv contracts with the bbc, IMG's plans for the sport that Walker was talking about before he left and the proposed announcements within 40 days that Hearn was explaining about at the Masters last month?
Thanks, Joe
Barry was down at Crondon Park today
ReplyDeleteThere will be quite a few announcements coming up soon
And Wenbo's match wasn't moved because the Chinese didn't want it played in China
ReplyDeleteGet the feeling they regard Ding as the chosen one there
The wildcard scenario would be OK if it was new, young players getting a chance, but some of these picks like Tian and Saenla are ex-pros - why should they get the chance to scupper a Main Tour player's prospects, when they themselves weren't good enough to stay on tour in the first place?
ReplyDeleteOh dear, we're still struggling to grasp the fact that family names come first in Chinese, I see.
ReplyDeletep.s. whatever happened to Liu Chuang? He never seems to get a wildcard.
I assume these announcements will be good news?
ReplyDeleteIs the China Open going to be on Eurosport?
ReplyDeleteHi Dave,
ReplyDeleteThanks for that.
That is interesting. But relations have got frosty off the baize at the moment between wenbo/ding haven't they? Nothing like a good rivalry.
Look forward to the announcement. Have you been told or is Hearn keeping everyone on tenterhooks?
Sure he'll be at the Darts later today. 10,000 crowd guranteered for the Premier League opener in London.
Thanks, Joe
Yes the China Open is on Eurosport
ReplyDeleteBarry is very open about his plans. I think he'll be announcing them in the next month or so
Brilliant news. Get rid of the journeymen pros from the UK and replace them with the exciting talent from the Far East. This is exactly what the game needs to grow. I can see the World Champs out there soon.
ReplyDeleteI agree get rid of the bottom 32 on the tour ,have a 64 man tour and watch the game take off again !
ReplyDeleteDarts in front of 10,000 is going to be strange to say the least. A template for the future China Open perhaps?
ReplyDeleteI hope Hearn doesn't ditch the BBC if they refuse to do the Grand Prix. If there was no snooker on terrestrial television it would hugely affect the chances of the revival we want instigated under Hearn.
ReplyDeleteif heart cuts the tour get ready for a EGM !!!
ReplyDeleteBarry Hearn is keeping the tour at 96 and instituting 10 tournaments at £50,000 each, largely to give players at all levels of the circuit plenty of chances to play
ReplyDeleteIf the lower rankers aren't happy with this they will never be happy period
For once the game has someone with foresight, with ambition, and most of all, with common sense, running it in Barry Hearn.
ReplyDeleteThe clowns running is before couldn't hang their jacket up without making a mess of it. No wonder the sport has become a turn off for some people.
Hopefully as well it will mean Snooker Scene will no longer need to flag up the wrongs of the game and concentrate on the good stuff.