Snooker Shanghai Masters opens in September Ding Junhui and O’Sullivan are participating
On June 13, the press conference of the 2019 World Snooker Shanghai Masters and National Amateur Snooker Masters was held at the Regal International East Asia Hotel.
As the world’s most influential top snooker event, this year’s Shanghai Masters is sponsored by the Bank of Shanghai. While presenting the wonderful duel as always, the high-profile amateur masters will also continue to be held to select more across the country. Folk snooker masters and professional players compete with each other. At the press conference, two heavyweight masters, O’Sullivan and Ding Junhui, also made their surprise appearances as “mentors” in the amateur competition, and played the strongest voice for the upcoming amateur competition in advance.
This year’s Snooker Shanghai Masters will be held at the Regal International East Asia Hotel from September 9th to 15th. The competition system will still adopt the 24-person invitational format. The players invited to participate will be composed of the top 16 players in the world, the 4 highest-ranked Chinese players in the world (if they are in the top 16 rankings, the quota will be extended), 2 recommended by the Chinese Billiards Association and 2 national amateur masters players. . The event will continue to maintain a high-level lineup, attracting the world’s top snooker players to fight against each other, fight for the glory of the championship and generous bonuses.
As the “outpost” and an important part of the event, the popular amateur masters give snooker fans across the country a valuable opportunity to participate in high-level events in the world. The amateur competition will be officially launched on June 15th and will be divided into two stages, the trial and the national finals. The sub-stations of the sea election will increase from four stations last year to eight stations, and will be conducted in Shanghai, Wuxi, Chengdu, Chongqing, Xiamen, Shenzhen, Wuhan and Xi’an from June to August.
The top three players in each trial will advance to the national finals in Shanghai in September for fierce competition. In the end, the winner and runner-up of the national finals will win the wild card seats of the 2019 World Snooker Shanghai Masters, and compete with the powerful snooker masters to achieve great results. The National Amateur Snooker Masters, a shining stage specially created for non-governmental players, will create more challenges and opportunities for them, and comprehensively help China’s snooker sports to reach new heights.
With a wonderful 30-second promotional video for the Masters, the conference kicked off. Luo Wenhua, Deputy Director of Shanghai Sports Bureau, Liu Chunsheng, Deputy Secretary-General of China Billiards Association, and Yang Yibin, Deputy General Manager of Shanghai Jiushi Sports Industry Development (Group) Co., Ltd. delivered speeches successively. Barry Hearn, chairman of the World Snooker Company in the United Kingdom, also expressed his support and greetings to the game and the fans through a video.
Later, witnessed by guests, fans and media representatives, Luo Wenhua, Deputy Director of Shanghai Sports Bureau, Liu Chunsheng, Deputy Secretary-General of China Billiards Association, Yang Guohao, Secretary-General of Shanghai Sports Federation, Huang Tao, Vice President of Bank of Shanghai, Five Star Sports Media Co., Ltd. Party branch secretary Li Peihong and Shanghai Jiushi Sports Industry Development (Group) Co., Ltd. Deputy General Manager Yang Yibin walked to the table together to kick off the 2019 National Amateur Snooker Masters.
At the same time, it was announced at the press conference that Ding Junhui and O’Sullivan will become the star mentors of this year’s National Amateur Snooker Masters, winning warm applause from the audience. The two immediately “take up their posts” and played their mentorship ahead of time. They teamed up with 8 amateur players on the spot and played a unique doubles clearing game. In the end, O’Sullivan led the team to victory. They also learned to use a player’s hometown dialect to say the slogan of this Amateur Masters: “Master of the next stop, I’ll wait for you”.
