Barely into his teens, Yan Bingtao was one of the first starry-eyed hopefuls through the door when snooker’s governing body the WPBSA threw open the doors of its gleaming new academy in Beijing in March 2013.
Seeking to capitalise on the trailblazing success of Ding Junhui, WPBSA chairman Jason Ferguson said he hoped the facility would “play its part in finding new talented players to follow in [Ding’s] footsteps.”
Almost eight years later, Ferguson watched Yan sink John Higgins to clinch an historic Masters title in Milton Keynes, and predicted it will signal the emergence of a new golden age of Chinese players at the top of the sport.
Ferguson told the PA news agency: “When we opened our Chinese academy, Yan was one of the first students in there and it is great to see where all his hard work has got him today.
“Yan always looked like he was the one with that little bit extra to give. I’ve seen so few players go frame-for-frame with John Higgins over the years, and his performance in the final was incredible.”
Despite Ding’s achievements, starting with his first of three UK titles in 2005, sparking a surge of unprecedented interest in the sport in his homeland, Chinese players capable of building on his legacy have proved elusive.
Only Liang Wenbo had emulated Ding in reaching a ‘triple crown’ final, but Yan’s dramatic emergence at the head of a 19-strong contingent of Chinese players who currently inhabit the world’s top 100 provides a unique and potentially lucrative opportunity for the sport.
“It’s incredible how many people in China were watching the final into the night and early morning last night, and it’s very hard to quantify the impact in financial terms,” added Ferguson.
“The Chinese market is around 30% of the whole world snooker tour these days, so it is a significant portion and to have this talent coming through is of enormous value for us.”
Fellow Chinese players such as Zhou Yuelong and Zhao Xintong have already earned the praise of some of snooker’s all-time greats, but the manner of Yan’s triumph over Higgins suggests he is in pole position to put the first Chinese hands on the Crucible crown.
“Yan has always had what it takes and he’s got the staying-power and ability to stick in there for the long haul,” added Ferguson.
“Ding is already a national hero, and I’ve got no doubt Yan is going to become one too.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here