There are several exciting clashes to look forward to on Sunday as the China Open qualifiers reach their conclusion in Leicester.
The fourth and final round of the preliminary competition at the Mattioli Arena will confirm who will join the top 16 from the world rankings who have been seeded through to the main draw.
Jack Lisowski and Chang Bingyu set up a mouthwatering encounter against one another after securing respective 6-4 victories over Xu Yichen and Matthew Stevens on Saturday.
As the world number 17, Lisowski is the highest-ranked player in the qualifying draw while Chang represents arguably the brightest rising talent in the game at present.
Another bruising battle pits former world champions Stuart Bingham and Luca Brecel against one another.
The latter will want to get the new season off to a positive start and dispel any lingering fears that tour survival might come into his equation later on.
Brecel edged Jamie Clarke 6-5 in the penultimate round while Bingham was a 6-4 winner over Ian Burns.
The only competitor to go all the way to the final round from the very first hurdle is Chen Ruifu, one of the invited amateurs who helped make up the initial 144-strong field.
Chen, who was denied a tour card by Liu Yang at Asia-Oceania Q School in May, has impressed so far with victories over Panchaya Channoi, Scott Donaldson, and Zak Surety.
It’ll be an all-Chinese clash in the final round with Chen challenging Zhou Yuelong for a spot in their home tournament.
One of the other major stories on Saturday involved another player from China, as Xu Si agonisingly missed the final black for a 147 break.
The 28 year-old failed with a tricky cut-back but did manage to win his game 6-1 to set up a date on Sunday against David Gilbert.
Among the others who are still in there fighting for a ticket to Taiyuan are Ali Carter, Gary Wilson, and Hossein Vafaei.
The China Open is back on the snooker calendar for the first time since 2019 with the main event scheduled to take place from August 8 to 16.
2026 China Open Qualifiers
Round 4 (bo11)
Sunday, 10:00 BST
Stuart Bingham vs Luca Brecel
Hossein Vafeai vs David Lilley
Tom Ford vs Liam Highfield
Daniel Wells vs Zhang Anda
Elliot Slessor vs Noppon Saengkham
Yuan Sijun vs Jackson Page
Anthony McGill vs Joe O’Connor
Matthew Selt vs Ali Carter
Sunday, 16:00 BST
Jack Lisowski vs Chang Bingyu
Jiang Jun vs Jimmy Roberson
Fan Zhengyi vs Pang Junxu
Aaron Hill vs Gary Wilson
Zhou Yuelong vs Chen Ruifu
Iulian Boiko vs Liu Hongyu
Xu Si vs David Gilbert
He Guoqiang vs Yao Pengcheng
Featured photo credit: WST
Chen Ruifu, aged 42, is a stalwart of the CBSA Tour, and has won several pro-am events over the years. He’s beaten most of the top Chinese players, including Ding Junhui.
The CBSA have subsidised the trip, but the wildcard players from China such as Chen who took up the offer had to meet most of the expenses to get here.
He is a respected coach, with a Huya stream channel, and he runs a snooker club (and I believe a bowling alley) in his hometown Chongqing.
Chen might have qualified for the tour in 2022, when he finished 2nd on the CBSA rankings, but for some reason only one tour card was allocated, rather than the usual two. His opponents this week have played poorly, but he did have a break of 140. Hopefully this run will make up for that crushing loss in Q School, which was probably his last chance to turn professional.
>Zhou Yuelong vs Chen Ruifu
Interesting to note: per snooker dot org, Panchaya Channoi, the 18 y/o from Thailand who recently won the women’s world title (as well as the U21 world title for women) lost in rd 1 to Chen Ruifu 6-4 — he then went on to beat Scott Donaldson 6-5 in rd 2, and Zak Surety 6-1 in rd 3.
So a pretty good showing by Panchaya Channoi in what I assume was her first WST qualifying.
Bai Yulu lost 3-6 in rd 1 to Peter Lines.
Reanne Evans won her rd 1 match 6-4 versus Alfie Davies — really any time a female beats a male player in qualifying for a WST event it’s noteworthy.
By my calculations, and from watching them play in a few tournaments, I rate Chen Ruifu about 300 in the world, and Panchaya Channoi around 450. So the 6-4 win was par.
It was really because Scott Donaldson and Zak Surety were so poor in their first match of the season that Chen had the chance to beat them.
I’d prefer to have the Summer Championship League at the start of the season, rather than such a massive event as this.