The Chinese revolution on the move: “In ten years, snooker will be like table tennis”

When China wakes up, it will dominate the world of snooker. She’s been waking up for a while now, but it’s still early. Dominating, it is not yet, but in the long term, some are convinced that this sport will be under the control of players from the Middle Kingdom. This is particularly the case of Ronnie O’Sullivan. “In ten years, snooker will be like table tennis“, predicted last February the world number one. A refrain already heard in the past. In 2016, Barry Hearn, the boss of World Snooker, said more or less the same thing. But this echo undoubtedly carries more than ever today today.

The promise of this revolution, the snooker actually saw it appear in the mid-2000s with the emergence of the prodigy Ding Jinghui, winner in 2005 of the UK Championship, one of the three biggest tournaments in the world. He was then only 18 years old. The first Chinese player to win a ranked tournament, he repeated the UK Championship twice, won the Masters, reached the final of the World Championship and even became world number one in 2014. In all these areas, Ding has acts as a pioneer, in a world hitherto dominated by members of the Commonwealth, and overwhelmingly the British and the Irish.

However, despite a busy career, he did not fly over the circuit as his spectacular start to his career had suggested. The Anglo-Saxons generally remained the masters of “their” sport. But until when ?

Exponential growth, gigantic potential

Snooker enjoys immense and ever-growing popularity in China. The total number of practitioners is estimated at around 60 million. The evolution of the number of cinemas also gives a good idea of ​​the explosion of the phenomenon. If it is difficult to assess at national level, the figures in Shanghai are revealing: there were 200 clubs in 2008, 1,500 in 2015 and more than 2,000 today. Exponential growth. Not to mention the street tables. In China, snooker is played outdoors, like chess in New York.

Beyond practice, this enthusiasm is also reflected in the consumption of snooker. China has become the world’s largest market in this area. 150 million viewers followed the World Championships last year on CCTV, the state channel. Online videos are also experiencing a phenomenal boost. “It’s colossal, told the Financial Times last year the commercial director of World Snooker, Miles Pearce. Three years ago, it wasn’t even a subject for us. From now on, on a World Championship, we are at more than 500 million views, only on China, only on the mobile.” Because snooker is above all followed and practiced in China by 18-35 year olds, urbanites, turned towards the West and very connected.

Aware of this interest and the gigantic potential, the Chinese government is investing resources in detection and training. Academies abound. And that investment is starting to pay off at the highest level. Failing to still have THE dominating player, THE global snooker superstar, the faces are multiplying like hotcakes. There are now twenty Chinese players in the Top 100 of the world ranking. Young, for many.

Yan Bingtao, born in 2000, won the Masters last season, becoming the third Chinese player to clear a ranked tournament after Ding Jinghui and Liang Wengbo. This year, two new nuggets won at least one title. The very young Fan Zenghyi was not yet 21 when he lifted the European Masters trophy, beating a certain Ronnie O’Sullivan in the final. Zhao Xintong won the UK Championships and then the German Masters. In the space of thirteen months, three Chinese have won at least one ranked tournament, more than in the entire history of snooker. And another youngster, Zhou Yuelong (24), reached the World Top 15.

Zhao Xintong soon to be king of snooker?

Can Zhao dominate his sport in the years to come and bring Chinese snooker to a new dimension? Ronnie O’Sullivan is convinced of this, under certain conditions. “He has the same problem as me a few years ago, it’s consistency. He still needs to find a floor level below which he never goes. That’s what he has to work on.” Able to become absolutely irresistible (he notably destroyed his compatriot Yan Bingtao 9-0 in the final of the German Masters), Zhao Xintong can also completely pass through a first round the following tournament.

Like Steve Davis before him, Ronnie O’Sullivan never hesitates to help Chinese players. For him, snooker will go through China and that’s good. “I am first and foremost a snooker fan and all the better if they bring great players to the sport, he thought last year. I love China, Chinese culture and the people there, I have always been warmly welcomed by them. I do my best to help these young players, because they are great guys. I want to pass on my knowledge and experience to them..”

A matter of “Soft power”

China has an almost infinite reservoir of young people for it and given the means committed, its seizure of power seems to have something inescapable about it. “I don’t see a western player with similar potential in the new generationO’Sullivan insists. The Chinese are ready to take over and dominate the sport like we have. Ten years from now I wouldn’t be surprised if all the great snooker players came from Asia.” “They will bring snooker into a new era, it seems inevitable to me“confirms former player Neal Foulds.

So, can snooker really become table tennis in such a short time? Perhaps not on such a scale, but the horizon is fixed. The next step for China would be to have a world champion. “It would be a huge event in this country“, notes Barry Hearn, well aware that this Chinese supremacy could also become economic.

He had thus had to fight in 2015 to resist the Chinese offensive which wanted to organize the World Championship. A replica of the Crucible Theater had even been built in Shanghai and the sums offered by the Chinese authorities were out of all proportion to what the city of Sheffield was putting on the table to keep the main event on the calendar. “I couldn’t imagine this event anywhere else like I can’t imagine the Wimbledon tournament anywhere other than at the All England Club“, said Hearn. Finally, a new lease was signed and the World Championship remained in England. But until when? Beyond a sporting ambition and an undeniable cultural phenomenon, snooker, for China, is also a matter of “Soft power”.