Judd Trump beat Ma Hailong 4-0 to reach the last 16 of the CBSA Tour event in Huangguoshu, Guizhou on Thursday.
The Englishman hasn’t lost a frame yet in the tournament, which is sanctioned by the Chinese Billiards and Snooker Association.
Trump opened up the competition with a whitewash victory over up-and-coming women’s star Bai Yulu before repeating the trick against main tour rookie Ma.
The 33 year-old will face Zhang Anda in the third round on Friday after the latter overcame Wang Zepeng 4-2.
The 64-field CBSA Tour event features China’s highest ranked amateurs, some qualified players, and a group of marquee invites including Trump.
Indeed, five of the eight high-profile international players invited from the World Snooker Tour still remain in the event.
Mark Allen, Kyren Wilson, Mark Williams, and John Higgins are also in contention for the top prize.
Allen and Higgins recorded 4-1 triumphs over Yao Dongcheng and Jin Long respectively on day three, while Wilson thumped Li Yan without losing a frame.
Williams had the toughest test but emerged as a 4-2 winner against Gao Yang, who dropped off the professional main tour in 2022.
There were defeats, however, for Jack Lisowski and Stephen Hendry.
The former went down unexpectedly in a 4-2 reverse against Tu Xuan in the second round, while Hendry lost 4-0 to Cai Jianzhong.
Among the familiar players from China still in contention are Xiao Guodong, Yuan Sijun, and Cao Yupeng.
Xiao has arguably had the most difficult draw of anybody so far – dispatching Ryan Day in a decider before bageling countryman Zhou Yuelong.
Yuan’s 4-0 success over Luo Zetao was his second of the week and included a break of 132, the highest of the tournament so far.
Cao, meanwhile, earned a 4-2 victory over Liu Hongyu.
The CBSA Tour event near Huangguoshu Waterfall runs until Saturday, when the champion will receive 200,000CNY (about £22,000).
Last 16 draw
Chang Yu Kiu vs John Higgins
Mark Williams vs Wang Xinbo
Zhao Hanyang vs Cai Jianzhong
Tu Xuan vs Yuan Sijun
Huang Jiahao vs Kyren Wilson
Mark Allen vs Mei Xiwen
Zhang Anda vs Judd Trump
Xiao Guodong vs Cao Yupeng
Featured photo credit: WST
Hendry’s loss was pretty bad. This week was an ideal chance for him to win a few matches. Cai Jianzhong won the Chinese National Championship many years ago, but now rarely plays and spends most of his time coaching academy kids. Stephen Hendry was probably his boyhood idol!
This tournament has been very enjoyable, and is exactly the kind of event I’ve been calling for, worldwide. It takes snooker to new places, showcases some big names, is viable with the limited capacity, and gives an opportunity to many local players. Unfortunately, WST are not generally supportive of Pro-Ams, and of course they aren’t able to give it ‘ranking’ status. But there is a special deal with the CBSA, and it’s also a useful test-bed for WST tournaments returning to China. But if things were different, we could see similar (or slightly smaller) events in the US, India, Thailand, Europe, Africa, Middle-East – any potential growth regions for snooker.
Pro-ams definitely shouldn’t have ranking status. The centuries made don’t even count to the player’s official tallies.
I agree pro-ams work well to generate interest but it would be better served in a market that we’ve yet to see much growth in. The pandemic showed World Snooker are too reliant on the British and Chinese markets.
I thought we did count invitational tournaments, like the Masters, for things like century breaks? Anyway, the criterion should be ‘professional’ vs. ‘non-professional’. Huangguoshu was a Pro-Am, as you said. If a tournament counts towards rankings, it would attract more entrants, something we definitely need at Am and Pro-Am level.