The 2015/16 snooker season looms as a particularly intriguing one for China, but the sport’s rising powerhouse will have to wait a bit longer before the picture is painted with a number of players absent from the first rankings event of the season.
The Australian Goldfields Open starts on Monday with 12 of the top 16 ranked players taking part, but among the notable absentees is Chinese superstar Ding Junhui. Coming off a surprisingly poor season in which he failed to make it past the semi-finals of a rankings event after winning five of them the year before, Ding announced last week that he has linked up with champion coach Terry Griffiths in an effort to end his slump.
Given another disappointing performance at last week’s World Cup in Wuxi in which he and partner Xiao Guodong were eliminated in the quarter-finals, some practice time with Griffiths sounds like a good idea. The same can’t be said for 15-year-old Yan Bingtao, who had registered to make his rankings event debut at the Australian Goldfield Open only for his visa to be denied.
While Ding’s World Cup defense fell short, Yan and Zhou Yuelong – named China B for the event – stunned the world by not only claiming the title but knocking over the likes of Scotland and Australia along the way. Their performance is an ominous sign of what the current pros can expect in the near future. Only last year Yan became the youngest player ever to win the World Amateur Snooker Championship – the same event Zhou won 12 months earlier – and while their absence in Australia is disappointing for the fans it is good news for the rest of the field.
There are two players WGM will be keeping an eye on in-particular at the Australian Goldfields Open. Scotland’s Stuart Bingham has been in great form in recent months, winning the prestigious World Snooker Championship in April to make it two rankings events wins in the season and move to number two in the world rankings.
And Australia’s Neil Robertson will be determined to score an elusive win on home soil after finishing runner-up the past two years.
