The 2026/27 snooker season continues this week with the return of the China Open, taking place in Taiyuan for the first time.
Back on the World Snooker Tour calendar for the first time since 2019, the China Open offers the richest prize fund of the season so far with a staggering £250,000 awaiting the champion.
It represents the second ranking event of the campaign following Championship League Snooker that was won by Jak Jones.
But it’s the first to feature the vast majority of the sport’s leading stars after many of the elite players opted to skip the season opener.
The China Open was last staged seven years ago when Neil Robertson beat Jack Lisowski in the final, and the Australian returns to China this time as the top seed.
When is the 2026 China Open?
The 2026 China Open runs from August 8 to 16 at the Sports Centre in Taiyuan, China.
Matches up to and including the semi-finals will be contested over the best of 11 frames, with the final played as the best of 19.
China Open prize money
Winner: £250,000
Runner-up: £100,000
Semi-finals: £50,000
Quarter-finals: £25,000
Last 16: £15,000
Last 32: £10,000
Last 48: £7,500
Last 80: £5,000
Last 112: £2,500
Highest break: £15,000
Total: £1,205,000
Former champions
The China Open, once a staple of the annual schedule, boasts an illustrious roll of honour despite its lengthy absence from the calendar.
Ronnie O’Sullivan, Neil Robertson, Mark Williams, Judd Trump, Ding Junhui, and Mark Selby, who triumphed three times in four years from 2015 to 2018 have all lifted the trophy over the years.
Who is in the draw?
A qualifying competition was held in June to determine which players would join the top 16 seeds at the venue stages in Taiyuan.
Robertson’s title defence begins with a difficult encounter against rising Chinese star Chang Bingyu, while world number one and last weekend’s Shanghai Masters champion Judd Trump faces Noppon Saengkham.
World champion Wu Yize has been paired with Yao Pengcheng, Ronnie O’Sullivan takes on Jackson Page, and John Higgins meets fellow former world champion Stuart Bingham in one of the standout first-round ties.
Home favourite Zhao Xintong, Kyren Wilson, Mark Williams, Shaun Murphy, and Mark Selby are also among the leading contenders bidding to capture one of the biggest prizes on the World Snooker Tour this season.
Zhao heads the outright betting market at around 3/1, with Trump close behind at approximately 10/3.
Sports bettors often compare different online platforms before placing a wager, with habanero casino games representing just one of the gaming options available alongside sportsbook markets.
Wu, O’Sullivan, Wilson, and Selby are also among the fancied runners ahead of the opening round in Taiyuan.
2026 China Open draw
Wildcard Round (bo11)
Liu Linhao 0-6 Hossein Vafaei
Wu Shengguan 0-6 Anthony McGill
Round of 32 (bo11)
Neil Robertson 6-3 Chang Bingyu
Si Jiahui 6-0 Jiang Jun
Mark Selby 6-3 Pang Junxu
Kyren Wilson 6-5 Aaron Hill
John Higgins 4-6 Stuart Bingham
Hossein Vafaei w/o Mark Allen
Chris Wakelin 6-4 Tom Ford
Zhao Xintong 5-6 Zhang Anda
Judd Trump 3-6 Noppon Saengkham
Ronnie O’Sullivan 6-2 Jackson Page
Xiao Guodong 6-3 Anthony McGill
Shaun Murphy 6-0 Matthew Selt
Mark Williams 3-6 Zhou Yuelong
Barry Hawkins 4-6 Liu Hongyu
Ding Junhui 1-6 David Gilbert
Wu Yize 6-5 Yao Pengcheng
Round of 16 (bo11)
Neil Robertson 6-2 Si Jiahui
Mark Selby 6-1 Kyren Wilson
Stuart Bingham 6-0 Hossein Vafaei
Chris Wakelin 4-6 Zhang Anda
Noppon Saengkham 6-4 Ronnie O’Sullivan
Xiao Guodong 2-6 Shaun Murphy
Zhou Yuelong 6-4 Liu Hongyu
David Gilbert 6-2 Wu Yize
Quarter-Finals (bo11)
Neil Robertson 1-6 Mark Selby
Stuart Bingham 6-3 Zhang Anda
Noppon Saengkham 6-4 Shaun Murphy
Zhou Yuelong 6-5 David Gilbert
Semi-Finals (bo11)
Mark Selby 6-2 Stuart Bingham
Noppon Saengkham 6-5 Zhou Yuelong
Final (bo19)
Mark Selby vs Noppon Saengkham
(Sun 16 Aug, 07:00 and 12:30 BST)
How to watch the 2026 China Open
There are several options available to watch the China Open live, depending on your location.
UK and Ireland
TNT Sports and HBO Max
Mainland Europe and selected countries
Eurosport and HBO Max
China
CCTV5
SMG
Huya
Migu
CBSA-WPBSA Academy WeChat Channel (pay-per-view)
CBSA-WPBSA Academy Douyin
Hong Kong China
Now Sports
Malaysia
Astro Supersport
Thailand
True Sport
Taiwan
Sportscast
All other territories
WST Play
Featured photo credit: WST
The winner of the wildcard qualifier was Wu Shengguan, a 29-year old former CBSA Academy player. I don’t rate him too highly, and coming in at this round is a bit much. Nevertheless, the organisers have tied themselves in knots with the structure of the event – with 4 rounds (comprising 112 matches) played behind closed doors in Leicester, 5000 miles from Taiyuan.
Liu Linhao recently overtook Xu Jiarui on the CBSA Junior rankings.
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/lSwqonc_nmnAHqS13YeqJw
https://cbsa.cssf.net.cn/Rank/MCBSASnookerYouthRanking.aspx?index=15B78B78971AE0F0&key=04AFE501AD5219846B83CDBDB5C5A13F#
Thanks for the update.
As far as the all important Ranking Tournaments go, the China Open is certainly a chance for players to find a positive early footing in the rankings. The China Open is only below the World Championships and the UK Championships in terms of purse money up for grabs. This year the UK Championships has increased the total purse by £295,000 making the new total purse £1,500,000.
Mark Allen’s withdrawal allows the winner of either wildcard Liu Linhao or Hossein Vafaei an opportunity to progress further with a bye into the last 16.
I’m not in agreement with wildcards a ranking event at this stage of the competition. You wouldn’t parachute them into a tennis event once it had already commenced regardless of where the qualifiers were held.
Thank you Lewis and Jay Brannon, you were spot on with your rating of Wu Shengguan and Liu Linhao both being put in their place by Anthony McGill and Hossein Vafaei respectively. Both wildcards being shoved in the main draw and losing 6-0 each just re-emphasizes Lewis’s and Brannon’s claim that these two players put in the spotlight while the likes of Anthony McGill, Hossein Vafaei, Chang Bingyu, Zhang Anda, Stuart Bingham, David Gilbert, Zhou Yuelong and others whom all went through rounds in qualifying to reach the China Open tournament was confusing at best.
Let me just add that qualifier players do have a chance in progressing as both David Gilbert won over Ding Junhui ranked 15th in the world and Zhou Yuelong beat one of my favourite players ranked 8th in the world Mark Williams. So did Anthony McGill and Hossein Vafaei.