Shanghai Masters 2023: Snooker’s welcome return to China as Ronnie O’Sullivan set for long-awaited title defence

Snooker takes a significant step forward this week with the resumption of major tournament action in China, a country which already has a significant foothold in the professional game and still an important area for its future.

China staged up to five lucrative tournaments a season until the Covid pandemic brought everything to a halt in 2019, with Judd Trump’s World Open success in November of that year the last World Snooker Tour event held on Chinese soil.

Players had to put their passports away and hunker down in Milton Keynes, competing in a series of lockdown events which were both welcome and a touch surreal. Now, it’s time to build up the airmiles again, with this week’s Shanghai Masters heralding the return of snooker to mainland China.

The first major event in Shanghai was staged in 1999 and the Shanghai Masters was held 13 times from 2007 to 2019 until the pandemic hit. It was a ranking tournament until 2018 when it was turned into a prestigious invitation event, effectively China’s version of the Masters in London. It features the top 16 in the rankings after the Championship League in July, the top four ranked Chinese players and local wildcards, competing for a first prize of £210,000.

It’s already a special event and anticipation is increased by the promise of the first appearance this season of Ronnie O’Sullivan, who remains world no.1 despite not playing in the campaign’s opening two tournaments.

O’Sullivan is popular everywhere, but in China the devotion is particularly strong and visceral. Audiences recognise that he is different, that there is something magnetically thrilling about watching him play.

Earlier this year he suggested he would prioritise playing in Asia over UK tournaments as he contemplates the final years of his career at the top level. This will please his adoring Chinese fans because O’Sullivan was a notable absentee from a string of tournaments held in China before the enforced cessation four years ago.

He played in the International Championship only four times from 2012 to 2019, the China Open just three times in the same period and the World Open only once.

Shanghai, though, has traditionally been more to his liking. He won a ranking event there back in 1999 and has triumphed in the last three stagings of the Shanghai Masters. The last player to beat him in the city was Michael Holt in 2016.

O’Sullivan is a natural showman and prefers elite events to multi-table tournaments, so the Shanghai Masters is a perfect fit for him. He hasn’t played a match, though, since Luca Brecel stunned him with a seven-frame winning burst at the Crucible last April.

The week ahead will therefore be a test of where O’Sullivan’s game is as he approaches his 48th birthday and provides an opportunity for various other bit hitters to gain some early season confidence.

Trump is looking to bounce back from his defeat to Barry Hawkins in the recent European Masters final. He played well in Germany but underperformed in the title match.

Neil Robertson is yet to win a title in 2023 and needs to soon if he is to extend his record of success in every calendar year since 2006. He was a first round loser in Germany but recently made his 900th career century during a qualifier in Leicester.

John Higgins looked sharp again at the European Masters, losing 6-5 to Trump in the semi-finals. Higgins and his great contemporary, Mark Williams, are each looking for their first major success since 2021.

Outsiders hoping to spring an upset include Iran’s Hossein Vafaei, reigning Scottish Open champion Gary Wilson and Jack Lisowski, for whom the search for a maiden title continues.

There is also considerable local interest. It has been a bruising year for Chinese snooker with the suspensions of ten players on match fixing charges. All have been given bans of varying lengths. Zhao Xintong and Yan Bingtao, who had become top 16 players, are among those cast into the snooker wilderness.

There was widespread concern that this would deter further Chinese investment in the sport, but this has not been the case. In fact, a new ranking event, the Wuhan Open, will take place in October with the return of the International Championship in November and the World Open next March.

New Chinese talent is emerging all the time, from the level-headed Pang Junxu to the talented Wu Yize to the exciting Si Jiahui, who came within two frames of reaching the World Championship final last season.

Si is handed a tasty opening round encounter with Ding Junhui, the elder statesman of Chinese snooker who did more than anyone to spark the boom in Asia when he won the China Open as an 18 year-old in 2005.

Old notions of proficiency at snooker being the sign of a misspent youth were turned on its head when the game was put on the curriculum in some Chinese schools. Vast academies were set up to develop new talent and promoters from different cities competed with one another to see who could deliver the most prestigious event.

Players heading over from the UK had to get used to long journeys often without their usual home comforts. This led to some weird and wonderful behaviour courtesy of jetlag and a general feeling of displacement.

However, players were also well looked after and treated as stars with opening ceremonies and red carpet parades. They will welcome the return to China and the increased earning potential it represents. Spectator numbers are not always high due to ticketing policy but TV viewership can run into the hundreds of millions.

In terms of ranking events, Mark Selby has been the most successful player in China, winning seven titles to Ding’s six. It was also the place where Brecel made his breakthrough, capturing his first ranking title, the China Championship, in 2017.

The quality of the field in Shanghai points to an excellent week of action ahead, but whoever wins the title the real achievement, after all the upheaval of recent years, is just to be back in a part of the world which embraces snooker so keenly.