Ding Junhui and Zhang Anda make prediction for China-dominated snooker future

China is not dominating snooker just yet, but the stars from the powerhouse nation expect it to happen in the near future.

Zhao Xintong became China’s first world champion when he beat Mark Williams in an historic Crucible final in May.

In the women’s game, Bai Yulu has emerged as a dominant force, winning the last two World Women’s Championships and at 22 years old could become a force on the main tour.

This year’s UK Championship features a record 12 Chinese players, five of which are members of the top 16, while the other seven came through qualifying.

Zhang Anda is one of those qualifiers and he is into the last 16 after a first round win over Gary Wilson, where he will take on the world champion.

Asked if he expects the top 16 to be dominated by Chinese players in the year’s to come, Zhang said: ‘I think so, yeah.

‘Ding [Junhui] 20 years ago he played alone here, but now many Chinese are together and now you can see more Chinese players perform. In future you can see that more young, better players come to the UK.’

Ding agrees with Zhang and feels there is going to be another wave of young talent coming from China after Zhao’s Crucible glory.

Couple that with far fewer young players emerging from the UK and Chinese dominance looks likely.

‘There are more young Chinese players now that are playing much better,’ Ding told SportsBoom. ‘I’ve done a lot for snooker in China in my career and now Xintong has won a world title.

‘In the past two, three years I think snooker in China it didn’t look like it was going quite well.

‘Chinese Heyball [8 ball pool], if you know that, they have a lot of tournaments in China so players like Cao Yupeng have gone back to being pool players, so they have more choice to change their career. This time it wasn’t good.

‘After Xintong won the World Championship, snooker has become back on the line now.

‘I don’t see much players from Europe or the UK. They have a few but not like in China, they can pick hundred young ones.

‘I see a few new faces in young players, but it is only like two or three so it’s not good enough. I think they need to improve more for young academies and give them more amateur tournaments.’

Zhang also touted the prospect of the World Championship moving to China in the future, which would make increasing sense if all a majority of the top players hailed from that country.

‘I hope, yeah, I hope,’ he said of a World Championship in China.

‘But the Crucible has two more years [on its contract to host the event]. I hope it’s in China, but I still like playing at the Crucible.’

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