Chang Bingyu is enjoying a superb run at the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters, ready to take on Ronnie O’Sullivan in the last 16, and it has been an eventful journey to this point.
The 23-year-old has won five matches to book his clash with the Rocket, winning three deciders before ousting Dave Gilbert and then Mark Allen in the last 32.
The Chinese star is ranked number 104 in the world but is clearly a better player than that, as these results suggest.
Chang is languishing near the bottom of the rankings as he has only recently returned to the professional tour after two years away due to a match-fixing ban.
The talented young cueist was one of the 10 players banned as part of the match-fixing scandal which emerged late in 2022, with punishments dished out in June ’23.
World champion Zhao Xintong was another, although he did not fix any matches and received the shortest ban of the 10 as a result.
Chang is the first to return from a ban of any of the players found guilty of match-fixing and he is making the most of it as his eventful life in snooker continues.
Chang Bingyu’s early promise
Chang was a wildly talented junior player, winning the 2018 IBSF World Snooker Championship at just 16 years old, having made a maximum in tournament play at just 14.
He joined the professional tour in 2019 as a teenager, moving to Sheffield as a result, and he picked up some encouraging wins, but the global pandemic disrupted his progress as he returned to China and missed some events.
A run to the 2020 UK Championship last 32 was probably the highlight of his early pro career, before he was suspended in December 2022 as part of the match-fixing scandal.
Why was Chang Bingyu banned?
Chang admitted to fixing a match against Jamie Jones at the 2022 British Open, losing 4-1, but did so as a result of pressure and influence from Liang Wenbo, who subsequently received a lifetime ban.
The Disciplinary Commission’s findings read that Chang ‘accepted that he on 28th September 2022 had fixed a snooker match that he was playing in.’
He gave evidence to the commission that he was called by Liang Wenbo on the morning of the match ‘with a threatening tone’ and told that Liang ‘had placed a lot of money on his bet without my knowledge, for my match with Jamie Jones that evening.’
Chang ‘reluctantly agreed’ but said he never received the money he was told he would be given for the fix.
The independent tribunal’s findings on Chang read: ‘We have found that Chang fixed or contrived, or was a party to an effort to fix or contrive, the result or score of a snooker match on one occasion.
‘We note that, at the time that his match fixing took place, Chang was aged 20. He was young and impressionable and under the influence of Liang, of whom he was scared. Chang has given evidence that he thought Liang would take action against him if he did not comply with Liang’s demands. We accept that, in all probability, Chang would not have offended absent that element of threat. He was also suffering financial difficulties at the time, he has shown genuine remorse for his actions and he admitted his office at the earliest opportunity. There is no suggestion that Chang committed any betting offence.’
Chang was given a three-year ban in June 2023 for fixing a match, reduced to two years following early admissions and his plea of guilty, which kept him out of snooker until December 2024 – backdated to his original suspension.
A rapid rise on return
Chang quickly won his place back on tour after being able to compete again, winning the Asia-Pacific Snooker Championship by beating Ryan Thomerson 6-1 in the final in April.
Now 23 years old, Chang has made a fantastic return to the professional circuit, starting with back-to-back wins in June over Dan Wells and Kreishh Gurbaxani in the Wuhan Open and British Open qualifiers.
He didn’t progress through his Championship League group, but only suffered one loss, to Ricky Walden.
A perilous draw awaited him at the Saudi Arabia Masters this month but he has been brilliant, winning a string of close games.
The Chinese star downed Marco Fu, Scott Donaldson and Wells all by a 4-3 scoreline, before beating Dave Gilbert 5-3 to reach the last 32.
Former UK and Masters champion Mark Allen awaited him there, but Chang beat the Pistol 5-4 to set up Wednesday’s clash with the Rocket.
Speaking to World Snooker Tour about his return to the game, Chang explained the huge amount of practice he was putting in with his coach Li Jianbing back in China, before a move back to Sheffield.
‘I was based at Coach Li’s academy and the schedule was very structured, I would practise from 9am to around 8:30pm every day,’ he said. ‘Everything was very disciplined, and he really helped me get into good form. I’m now based at Ding Junhui’s academy in Sheffield and I still have long, focused practice sessions daily, around six to seven hours.’
He added that two of the brightest young talents in the game, Si Jiahui and Wu Yize, have been his rivals through their young careers and he intends to reach their level as quickly as possible.
‘Over the past two years, I have gained perspective,’ he said. ‘Now I approach matches with a much calmer mindset. My goal is to catch up with players like Wu Yize and Si Jiahui. We grew up playing each other together, and they’ve both made great strides so I’d like to follow their lead.
‘We’ve been close since we were kids. Seeing them succeed definitely motivates me to push harder.’
Controversies and difficulties behind him, Chang appears to be ready to make a huge impact at the top end of the game.