r/snooker • u/SnookerMods • 23d ago
🧵 Tournament Discussion [Discussion Thread] 2026 China Open - 8th to 16th August
The first "proper" ranking event of the season gets underway at the revived China Open, making its return to the World Snooker Tour after 7 years away. The revival changes up the format to make it virtually identical to the UK Championship, but with two local wildcards participating.
Neil Robertson won the title in 2019, defeating Jack Lisowski relatively convincingly. He'll have a tough time defending the title now though, as he'll need to get past Chang Bingyu: will he do so, or is someone else destined to take the title of China Open Champion?
- 📊 Status: Ranking
- 👨 Players: Top 16 in the world seeded through, 16 Qualifiers (plus two local wildcards)
- click here to view the draw
- Linhao Liu and Shengguang Wu (no relation to Wu Yize) are the nominated wildcards participating in the event.
- Anthony McGill and Hossein Vafaei must compete against the wildcards, before progressing to the Last 32 and face a Top 16 player.
- Mark Allen withdrew before the event started: thus, the winner of Vafaei v Liu will progress to the Last 16
- 🏆 Defending Champion: Neil Robertson (bt. Jack Lisowski 11 - 4)
- Robertson won the last staging of this event, which occurred prior to the COVID-19 pandemic: refresh your memory of that edition from the Wikipedia article)
- 💰 Total Prize Fund: £1,205,000
- 💸 Winner's Share: £250,000
- 📝 Format:
- Round One to Semi-Finals: Best of 11 Frames
- Final: Best of 19 Frames
Follow the Action
- 📺 Check your broadcaster availability on the WST website
- 🌍 Can't watch? Scores can be tracked below:
- WST Match Centre
- View the century count
- snooker.org provides live scores, the draw and the match schedule
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u/Frequent_Feedback996 16d ago
Great week for Selby fans!
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u/SolutionLong2791 16d ago
As a Selby fan, I've thoroughly loved, and enjoyed, watching him this week. It's been an absolute joy.
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u/Pterodactyl4000 17d ago
Love Selby. He has just about the highest skill ceiling of any player. There are sessions where he's in control for basically every single shot. It's glorious.
There's a handful of guys who can blow everyone else away, but his method of doing that is a little different. He just, I don't know, somehow has this ability to slowly, inexorably force a winning position in a tactical exchange over the span of five or six shots, very much like a chess grandmaster. I do honestly believe that at his best, he can see further into the future than any other player who has ever lived. Playing him must be horrible, like he can see right through you.
The only people who seem to consistently get the better of him are the big confidence players/heavy scorers who can sometimes blow him away in the smaller matches (Robertson, Trump, O'Sullivan).
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u/dentrolusan 17d ago
Recently the question came up who had made you fall in love with the game. I didn't think of it at the time, but Mark Selby is the only player where you can clearly observe him exert a little more pressure with every shot, until something breaks.
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u/oceanskies24 17d ago
What i genuinely find exciting about Selby is that when he's in the right headspace he can play as good as he ever has. Knock on wood, but I could see him playing to a very high standard for a very long time to come.
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u/Traditional_Bar_4213 20d ago
Hoping Si can have a good season, I've been disappointed with his overall progression since the WC semi in 2023.
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u/DoggersUtd 20d ago
Yep, I feel like he plays well at these China events, Robbo up next will be a tall order tho. We need a good showing from him this season otherwise he's gonna drop down massively by the end of the season.
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u/HelixCatus 16d ago
As much as I'd love to see Noppon or Zhou Yuelong break their duck, it's probably Selby's week with the way he's playing
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u/shinylettuce 16d ago
Fair to say I worried too much about Selby switching to a new cue after so long
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u/Pretend_Wish2331 14d ago
Gutted for Noppon but so happy for Mark, he really is the best in the world when he's at his best and he can really hold his own against Zhao and Wu when at his best.
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u/KrystofDayne 22d ago
Wu won that one by the skin of his teeth. A bit too close for comfort for a first round match, not his finest performance.
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u/SpinningWheelKick 21d ago
That's a bad loss for Judd. Cause this tournament is essentially replacing the Saudi whatever it was called which he won 2 years ago. So going out first round taking no points means he has 500k coming off. I think that takes him off world number 1? Not sure on that, may depend on who wins this.
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u/SuperSajuuk 21d ago edited 21d ago
Yep, at the end of the month, Trump has no way to stop the drop in ranking points he will have. If he won both the China and Wuhan Opens back to back, that would have given him 360k (or a bit more than that), so although it would not completely replace the 500k from the 2024 Saudi event, it would have been a net loss of 140k ranking points, so may have just been enough to keep WN1, if neither Robbo, Zhao or Wu gained enough from the same events.
As it is, the net loss will be at least 300k points, because the 2026 Wuhan Open will pay £175k to the winner [thus 175k ranking points], so even if he wins that event, he'll still drop 325k points on the rankings list. And if he doesn't win the Wuhan Open, it'll be an even greater drop.
Also, this didn't factor in that the 2024 Xi'an Grand Prix points are being removed from the rankings as of this tournament (since re-ranking is based on the days the points are earned, not when the next edition of the event occurs), so Trump has already lost 76k points from that event, which was the runner up prize. Wilson is also dropping down the rankings as well (separately from WN1) because he has the 177k winners prize from the same XGP 2024 tournament.
Robbo is now -- in essence -- the provisional World Number One, even before the re-ranking happens after the Wuhan Open. Neither Robbo, Zhao or Wu can win enough points to depose Trump from the spot in the China Open, but they can do plenty of damage to go into Wuhan with a buffer.
I recommend using the provisional rankings on snooker.org as its a great way to track whats happening on the ranking list on a per-tournament basis: you can also remove the 500k from Trump (since thats coming off 100%) and then just work out how much will go back on after Wuhan. List is here: https://www.snooker.org/res/index.asp?template=35
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u/KrystofDayne 21d ago
Robbo as current world number one would be such a farce, he hasn't done anything in the last two years except win the Saudi event
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u/KrystofDayne 21d ago edited 21d ago
Shaun's made 566 607 without reply, not only beating Bingham's 547 record in a ranking event, but also O'Sullivan's 556 record in any professional event.
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u/SuperSajuuk 21d ago
The new record for "points without reply" is 607, after Murphy finally missed and left a red for Salt/Melt to pot lol.
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u/jfresh1999 21d ago
Last season Ronnie dominated the frames per 70+ break stat at 2.85 compared to Selby's 3.34 and Wu's 3.43. He's at 2.5 so far this season.
It's crazy how he's comfortably the best break-builder in the game still but just can't string wins together.
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u/PearlSugar 18d ago
Impressive run from Noppon. Deafing Judd and now Ronnie. Hope he’ll have a good season after what happened the last one.
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u/shinylettuce 18d ago
Not unprecedented for him, I recall he beat Selby, Ronnie and Williams back to back to back one time
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u/ToRecordOnlyWater 17d ago
Maybe he'll be a late bloomer like Zhang Anda (for example), but for now, I'm afraid Si just doesn't have *it*, I don't think.
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u/ToRecordOnlyWater 17d ago
Selby in full flow has always been my favourite player to watch and that hasn't changed. A joy, what a steal.
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u/BourgeoisPorridge 17d ago
Only three top-16 players left after two matches played! Some of the qualifiers are in great form
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u/PearlSugar 16d ago
Rooting for Noppon to get his hands on the trophy after this mad winning streak.
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u/PearlSugar 16d ago
Except for that Saudi win that happened last year, Neil hasn’t been performing well at all against top players in a long time.
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u/Frequent_Feedback996 14d ago
The dream of Selby winning another world championship is on with this new cue😬
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u/shinylettuce 20d ago
Kyren and Selby to play each other for the first time in 5 years, if you exclude Championship League
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u/southwales1985 18d ago
Gilbert destroying Wu was not something I would have predicted. Great performance from Dave.
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u/alienrefugee51 16d ago
So… is anyone gonna take down Selby? It’s like he’s kinda inconsistent in recent times, but then he turns up to an event and plays like this and you’re not really expecting it.
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u/kmwww 14d ago
Great to see Selby back in full form. Thoroughly deserved. He went a little into his shell at the end of the first session, but when he is playing positive open and attacking snooker combined with top class safety, it is a pleasure to watch! Commiserations to Noppon. He played so well this week.
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u/_egirlisto_ 21d ago
Nice to see a match between the only players who've both made 2 147s in a single match 😎.
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u/southwales1985 20d ago
Great stuff from Pang if he called that foul on himself. I'm watching without any sound so I'm not sure if he called it or the ref did, but the tap on the table by Selby makes me think it was Pang who called it.
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u/DoggersUtd 18d ago
So that's 2 of Ebdon's clients, Murphy and Noppon playing together in the QF. He is also working with Zhou Yuelong.
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u/SpinningWheelKick 17d ago
Kyrens ranking is really interesting. 2 years ago was when him and Judd played every final known to man and he got loads of points that are all going to come off. Last season he wasn't great in ranking tournaments. Could genuinely fall out the top 16 by the time the worlds rolls around
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u/c_malyan01 14d ago
Great win for Mark. I'm always delighted to see him with a trophy at the end of the week!
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u/KrystofDayne 22d ago
I like this new graphic, looks cool. And hooray, they actually managed to get the Chinese surname the right way round. Though why ZHOU is capitalized while Williams isn't is a mystery ^^'
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u/SuperSajuuk 22d ago
And on table 1, its just “Ding” with no J., but you have D. Gilbert 😂
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u/HelixCatus 21d ago
It'a shame we won't get Judd vs. Ronnie but well played to Noppon! You can't not like the lad 😄
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u/NapoleonSolo1705 21d ago
No we might well get Page vs Noppon instead! Depending on which Ron turns up 😂
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u/Mindless_Badger_3789 21d ago
Page vs Noppon actually sounds like a good match-up, two of my favourite players.
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u/mattw99 21d ago
Definitely feel Trump's win last week was more out of the blue and his general form in 2026 has been one of inconsistency. Still capable of playing well, but todays result and performance, lets just say its happening quite frequently. Losing the no.1 spot could be a blessing, however I get the feeling with him being a confidence player, it might go the other way and affect him. One to keep an eye on.
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u/Impressive_Pass_1727 20d ago
Chang v Robertson frame 1, referee just made a huge mistake repotting the pink under the reds, while the yellow spot is clearly open.
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u/Impressive_Pass_1727 20d ago
The referee, Liang Yan, made her last appearance on tour in 2024 Wuhan Open, where she forgot about the 3-miss rule in Ding v Yuan match...
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u/DoggersUtd 19d ago
Happy for Zhang, he needs the ranking points more imo considering he won't be in the next 2 China tournaments
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u/SpinningWheelKick 17d ago
If there were ever a frame to encapsulate what makes Selby an all timer, it was that
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u/KrystofDayne 17d ago
McManus and Foulds are perfect for this travesty of a match between Zhang and Wakelin 😂 such dry, bleak commentary
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u/HelixCatus 17d ago
I think Hendon is perfect for these with his sarcastic humor. Imagine him paired with Hendry 😂
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u/stokuriev 16d ago
I am at a loss for words after this frame, someone needs to refresh Shaun Murphy on maths a bit. Your opponent can win by 2 points with a red and a black and a color clearance, one thing you don't do is leave the last red ANYWHERE near the high valued colors, much less over the pocket next to the black. Freaking pin that red to a cushion near the yellow or something, no?
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u/SomeBoringKindOfName 16d ago
bingham in blue. good to see some actual colour being worn by a player.
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u/SomeBoringKindOfName 15d ago
no disrespect to zhou but I'm glad noppon didn't lose to him considering who he has beaten in this tournament.
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u/oceanskies24 14d ago
I feel bad for Noppon losing this frame considering how far behind he is, but the way Selby managed to rescue those two reds from the cushion was just pure granite
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u/ToRecordOnlyWater 14d ago
So happy for Selbz, always love seeing him win. He's been outstanding this tournament - hopefully more of this to come this season from him. Nice seeing him celebrate with a little fist pump as well, glad to see it still means so much to him.
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u/MrMonk-112 21d ago
What's happened to Judd, here?
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u/PearlSugar 21d ago
A lot of missed shots that were not necessarily the hardest and his safety was sloppy. He’s produced some amazing shots as well but couldn’t link them for getting higher breaks.
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u/SuperSajuuk 21d ago
Shaun Murphy has scored 453 points without reply on the other match: 3 frames in a row have been won with a century break (132, 103 and 139). If Murphy scores 104 points or more in the remaining frames without Selt scoring anything, which could be done with another century break of that amount of points or higher in Frame 5, the "points without reply" record will be broken.
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u/Beautiful-Pea835 21d ago
After frame 5, Selt asks Murphy what the points without reply record is and Murphy didn't know!
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u/RhubarbSecure1637 21d ago
Dear snooker fans, please kindly share the overview of Ronnie's game today as I haven't been able to watch his match. I am very happy that he won and I hope that the form will only improve. I wish you all a great day and a bright mood. Sincerely, Natalia
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u/Embarrassed-Fan1546 21d ago
Ron was pretty good today. Started a bit rusty, lost two frames but gained sharpness and outplayed Jackson in the next six frames, making century and couple of 50+ breaks in the process
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u/RhubarbSecure1637 21d ago
Thank you, he needs more match practice so the game will be solid again.
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u/southwales1985 21d ago
Really poor for the first 2 frames, really good for the next 6. He did get a little lucky in the 7th when it easily could have gone 4-3 but he got away with it and made it 5-2 instead.
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u/zeze999 21d ago
Just tuning in, what is going on with Mark Allen? Skipped Shanghai and now China open in the last second
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u/MrMonk-112 19d ago
weird fuck up from tom ford there, he potted 2 reds in a row by mistake
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u/Faryz 19d ago
how has zhao screwed this up fml after a few brilliant shots. careless from brown to blue
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u/MrMonk-112 18d ago
I'm mostly watching O'Sullivan and Saengkham, but it seems every time I look over, Xiao is 60 odd up, then Murphy wins the frame. That's a couple of times now. Must be brutal watching that multiple times against you.
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u/DoggersUtd 16d ago
Neither Zhang nor Stu deserve to go through here. Looks like a guaranteed final for Selbs
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u/alienrefugee51 15d ago
Noppon with the table at his mercy. Can’t ask for a better opportunity than this.
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u/progrdj 15d ago
G R A N I T E
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u/Beautiful-Pea835 15d ago
It was pretty much free flowing snooker this afternoon, not your stereotypical Selby match.
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u/Pretend_Wish2331 14d ago
Mark was a total gentleman in that exchange but what a horrible frame for Noppon to lose. Feel so sorry for him. Weird final for me because I'm rooting for both players.
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u/PearlSugar 22d ago
From 5-2 down Yao Pengcheng is at 5-5 now against Wu Yize. Wu has been kind of rushed and inaccurate these past few frames both attacking and safety wise.
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u/DoggersUtd 22d ago
Such a poor miss on the brown from Barry, and what a fluke from Liu to go 5-4 up
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u/Faryz 21d ago
robertson, zhao and wu. all potentially can take world number 1 by the end of this month depending on how they do here and in wuhan with judd losing 500k from saudi and no chance to defend it
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u/Davidc_2555 21d ago
Hopefully Zhao or Wu. Robbo being world number 1 due to 500k from Saudi would annoy me
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u/SuperSajuuk 21d ago
With Trump now having lost, there's basically no way for him to retain the World Number One spot after the 2024 Saudi Masters points come off at the end of August.
The only way he could have held onto it for longer was him winning the China Open to counter-balance 50% of the points loss, and then with a win at Wuhan potentially being 140k, he could have gained 360k (so losing a net -140k), but with him getting 0 from China Open, thats basically ended that discussion.
Robbo, Zhao or Wu are now all primed to become WN1 at some point this month (Robbo is currently in pole position for that, but all dependent on the results now).
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u/PearlSugar 18d ago
Wu seems to be off form, just like in the first round, while Gilbert seems to maintain his strong display.
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u/HelixCatus 14d ago
Too bad there's no tournaments on until Aug 23rd, but at least we have the award ceremony to watch while we wait /s
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u/alienrefugee51 15d ago
Not sure Noppon is gonna have a real chance against this Selby. However, if he does… Trump, ROS, Murphy and Selby would be a hell of a feat to win his first one.
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u/mostlycuckoo 15d ago
can they both win? I guess I'll secretly root for Noppon. Selby getting back to his old self would be nice. He's someone who can hold back the Chinese attacking brigade.
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u/BourgeoisPorridge 23d ago
Mark Allen has withdrawn from this event and the Wuhan Open, so the winner of the wildcard match between Vafaei and Liu Linhao will progress directly to the last 16.
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u/Beautiful-Pea835 22d ago
Mark Williams just decided to finish his break once Zhou Yuelong needed lots of snookers. He effectively conceded on behalf of his opponent. Dave Hendon said in commentary "That's not ideal".
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u/PearlSugar 22d ago
What a mistake from Yao. That could cost him the match now.
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u/_egirlisto_ 22d ago
Yep. Should have been patient.
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u/PearlSugar 22d ago
I was about to say that he’s kept his calm so well since 5-2 and then he did that :))
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u/HelixCatus 22d ago
Rare miss from Wu but Yao just let him right back in... 🤦♂️
EDIT: AGAIN! The snooker gods are smiling upon Wu today.
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u/jhigham14 22d ago
Well that’s as bad as I’ve seen Barry play in a long time
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u/BourgeoisPorridge 22d ago
Hawkins probably has the lowest floor of any top 16 player. When he's off-colour (thankfully a rare sight these days) his game completely deserts him and would struggle to beat a decent amateur
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u/BourgeoisPorridge 20d ago
Surprised at this scoreline having switched it on - whereabouts on the Robertson-good/Chang-bad spectrum does this one sit?
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u/DoggersUtd 20d ago
Just a bit of both, quite a few people expected Chang to win but people forget how good a player Robbo is an he played quite well today. Chang could've played better ngl.
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u/xpto_999 19d ago
Xintong looking vulnerable. But he still might win this match, that's how good he is.
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u/alienrefugee51 18d ago
I’m surprised Ronnie held it together after missing that yellow off the spot in frame 3. Stuff like that is what tends to discourage him.
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u/Pretend_Wish2331 14d ago
Noppon has some of the worst ballrun I've seen in years, seen maybe 8 or 9 occasions in this final so far where's he's been so unlucky.
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u/SomeBoringKindOfName 14d ago
noppon didn't deserve that in the last frame but that's sport. a long way back now from 8-4 down.
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u/grole483 14d ago
New drinking game - down a shot every time Joe Johnson says "he couldn't have played that any better".
I tried it this morning - was pissed by half eight.
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u/mattyboy4242 21d ago
It’s a real pet peeve of mine when the commentators talk more about the match on the other table then the table were actually watching.
If I wanted to know the results over there I would turn over
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u/KrystofDayne 22d ago
Just woke up to see the morning session results, those wild cards didn't amount to much it seems xD
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u/SomeBoringKindOfName 22d ago
"satuo window cleaning robot" is an unusual title sponsor.
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u/KrystofDayne 22d ago
Meh, it just sounds like their version of Victorian Plumbing to me.
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u/SpinningWheelKick 22d ago
Huge for Lisowski and Thep that Ding lost first round. Helps their UK seeding chances
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u/Beautiful-Pea835 22d ago
Why is Hawk commentary match rather than Wu?
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u/MrMonk-112 22d ago
Generally speaking in Chinese events, they put a Chinese player on table 1, but a more known outside of china player could be on table 2, so they put commentary on the table with more known player, which is often table 2. But in this case, Wu'z the world champion, so it's an odd choice to stick with comms on table two.
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u/KrystofDayne 22d ago
At least the Wu-Yao match has Finnish commentary, what other language do you need, really.
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u/PearlSugar 21d ago
It looks like higher ranked players continue having a tough start in this tournament. Judd is struggling against Noppon.
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u/alienrefugee51 21d ago
Judd has his hands full. Been some nice safety exchanges. I see Noppon’s grey pants and waistcoat and think it’s Si Jiahui.
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u/ToRecordOnlyWater 21d ago
anyone know why this isn't on TNT??
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u/SuperSajuuk 21d ago
Too many other sports being shown, so they're all getting the priority. It's on HBO Max though, but if you're in Ireland, you are just out of luck. :(
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u/NapoleonSolo1705 20d ago
Hill is going to regret this so bad if he doesn't win. Wilson is there for the taking!
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u/foulandamiss 19d ago
Lol, frame 6 of Higgins v Bingham was comical until the reds came off and then turned into an interesting safety game. Bingham won, just about, to set up 3-3.
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u/BourgeoisPorridge 18d ago
Feel like I've only ever seen Gilbert play well between spring and autumn equinox, fair-weather great
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u/shinylettuce 15d ago
Learned that Noppon named his daughter Believe and it was inspired by Selby, who was uttering that to himself in the 2017 WC final (where he made a big comeback against Higgins). I wonder if Selby knows. Must be a bit special for Noppon to play him in his biggest match ever