The 2026 China Open (officially the 2026 Satuo China Open) was a professional snooker tournament that took place from 8 to 16 August 2026 at the Riverside Sports Centre in Taiyuan, China. Qualifying took place from 10 to 14 June at the Leicester Arena in Leicester, England. The first edition of the revived China Open after it was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was the second ranking event of the 2026–27 snooker season, following the 2026 Championship League and preceding the 2026 Wuhan Open. The winner received £250,000 from a total prize fund of £1,205,000.

Neil Robertson was the defending champion, having defeated Jack Lisowski 11–4 in the 2019 final, but he was beaten 1–6 by Mark Selby in the quarter-finals.

Selby won the tournament, defeating Noppon Saengkham 10–6 in the final.

Overview The first non-ranking China Masters was held in 1985. Steve Davis won the inaugural edition, defeating Dennis Taylor 2–1 in the final. The first major international tournament played in the Asian country was the China International, held as a non-ranking event in 1997 and as a ranking event in March 1999. It was renamed the China Open for the December 1999 edition, which Ronnie O'Sullivan won by beating Stephen Lee 9–2 in the final. It was staged 18 times as a ranking event until it was discontinued due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As of the 2019 edition, the last one to be played before its discontinuation, Mark Selby and Mark Williams were the most successful players, each having won the tournament three times.

The 2026 edition of the tournament was held from 8 to 16 August at the Riverside Sports Centre in Taiyuan, China. Qualifying took place from 10 to 14 June at the Leicester Arena in Leicester, England. It was the second ranking event of the 2026–27 snooker season, following the 2026 Championship League and preceding the 2026 Wuhan Open. Neil Robertson was the defending champion, having defeated Jack Lisowski 11–4 in the 2019 final, but he was beaten 1–6 by Mark Selby in the quarter-finals.

The opening ceremony was held in Taiyuan on 7 August. At the ceremony the chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, Jason Ferguson said: "Today marks a significant moment for our sport as we celebrate the return of one of snooker's most prestigious and historic tournaments. After a six-year absence, the China Open once again takes its rightful place on the World Snooker Tour calendar, reaffirming its status as the flagship snooker event in China and one of the highlights of our international season." China Open promoter Jay Wang noted the tournament's successful return.

There were 120 century breaks made during the event, with 80 made during the qualification stage, and 40 at the main stage, including a maximum break made by Michael Holt during qualifying.

Format The revived edition followed a structure similar to that of the UK Championship and the World Championship. 144 players were entered into the tournament, including Chinese wildcards as well as top-up amateurs from the Q School Order of Merit. The top 16 ranked players were seeded through to the final rounds in Taiyuan, while all other players needed to play between 2 and 4 rounds of qualifying in Leicester in order to qualify for the main stage, depending on their seeding.

All matches up to and including the semi-finals were the best of 11 , while the final was a best-of-19 frames match played over two .

Prize fund The winner received £250,000 from a total prize fund of £1,205,000. The breakdown of prize money is shown below:

Winner: £250,000 Runner-up: £100,000 Semi-finalists: £50,000 Quarter-finalists: £25,000 Last 16: £15,000 Last 32: £10,000 Last 48: £7,500 Last 80: £5,000 Last 112: £2,500

Highest (qualifying stage included): £15,000 Total: £1,205,000

Summary Qualifying rounds

Qualifying round 2

Michael Holt made the first maximum break of his professional career in his 6–1 win over Mark Joyce. It was the first 147 of the 2026–27 season and the 242nd official maximum.

Qualifying round 3 Xu Si missed the last in a maximum attempt in the seventh and final of his match against Jamie Jones which he won 6–1.

Qualifying round 4 Tom Ford beat Liam Highfield 6–5, coming back from 0–5 down. The final frame was decided on the final black.

Later rounds Last 32 David Gilbert beat Ding Junhui 6–1, and Wu Yize defeated Yao Pengcheng 6–5. Zhou Yuelong beat Mark Williams 6–3, and Liu Hongyu defeated Barry Hawkins 6–4. Xiao Guodong beat Anthony McGill 6–3, and Noppon Saengkham defeated Judd Trump by the same score. Shaun Murphy whitewashed Matthew Selt with century breaks of 132, 103, 139, and 113. With 607 unanswered points, this breaks the record for a professional match, beating the previous record of 556, set by Ronnie O'Sullivan at the 2014 Masters. O'Sullivan beat Jackson Page 6–2.

Si Jiahui whitewashed Jiang Jun, and defending champion Neil Robertson defeated Chang Bingyu 6–3. Mark Selby beat Pang Junxu 6–3, and Kyren Wilson defeated Aaron Hill 6–5. Mark Allen withdrew and so Hossein Vafaei was given a walkover to the last 16. Stuart Bingham beat John Higgins 6–4, making a high of 140. Chris Wakelin beat Tom Ford 6–4, and Zhang Anda beat Zhao Xintong 6–5 on a in the final frame.

Last 16 The last 16 matches were played on 12 and 13 August.

Gilbert beat Wu 6–2, and Zhou defeated Liu 6–4 making four century breaks of 119, 108, 134, and 140. Saengkham beat O'Sullivan 6–4, and Murphy defeated Xiao 6–2.

Bingham whitewashed Vafaei, and defending champion Robertson beat Si 6–2. Selby beat Wilson 6–1, and Zhang defeated Wakelin 6–4.

Quarter-finals The quarter-finals were played on 14 August.

Saengkham beat Murphy 6–4, and Zhou defeated Gilbert 6–5. Selby beat defending champion Robertson 6–1, and Bingham defeated Zhang 6–3.

Semi-finals

The semi-finals were played on 15 August.

Saengkham beat Zhou 6–5, making a 134 in the to reach his second ranking final, having lost to Gary Wilson in the final of the 2023 Scottish Open. After the match Saengkham said: "Last night I couldn't sleep, I went to sleep at 6am and woke up at 10am. I was thinking about everything, at 5–5 I still believed I could do it, I just wanted one chance. From 5–3 I didn't make many mistakes. I told myself that if I had one chance I had to go for it. You need a big heart if you want to win big."

Selby beat Bingham 6–2 to reach his 39th ranking final. After the match Selby said: "I played OK tonight, not as good as yesterday but I didn't do a lot wrong, Stuart looked good up until 2–2, then after that the bits of run didn't go his way. I seem to be punishing my opponent's mistakes and you need to do that to compete for tournaments. I have hit the ball well and felt good on the practice table all week, and trusted myself out there. Noppon is in the final for a reason, he's playing very well and he's beaten Judd , Ronnie , Shaun Murphy and Zhou Yuelong. It will be tough. I played him the World Championship in 2020 and beat him 13–12, he played unbelievably well over three sessions so I am expecting something similar to that. I'll give it my all as I do in every match. It's great to be back in a final here in China."

Final The final was played on 16 August as the best of 19 , played over two .

At the end of the afternoon session the score was tied at 4–4. Selby went on to win the match, and the tournament 10–6, for his 26th ranking win and his fourth China Open title. After the match Selby said: "I'm very happy to be standing here as champion, I felt I played some really good stuff all week, Noppon played well in the first session and I was fortunate to pinch the last two frames and finish 4–4, I was over the moon with that scoreline because Noppon probably felt he deserved to be ahead." Saengkham said: "Mark was very strong today and controlled the game very well, his safety game was so good. When I was 4–2 up he was under pressure but in the evening the game changed and it looked like Mark was controlling everything. I am very happy with the way I played during the tournament and to be here until the end. I will keep trying hard and hopefully one day I will be the champion."

Main stages Wildcard round A wildcard round—also known as the last 34—was held prior to the last 32, in which two qualifiers from the qualifying rounds were randomly drawn against two Chinese wildcard players. The winner of each wildcard match progressed to the last 32 to play a top 16 seed. The results for these wildcard round matches are below:

MatchQualifierScoreWildcard playerWC1 6–0WC2 6–0

Main draw The results of the main draw are shown below. Numbers in parentheses after the players' names denote the players' seeding and players in bold denote match winners.

Note: w/d=withdrawn; w/o=walkover

Final: frame scores Final: Best of 19 frames. Referee: Zheng WeiliRiverside Sports Centre, Taiyuan, China, 16 August 2026 Mark Selby 106 Noppon Saengkham Afternoon: 867, 8938, 1380 (138), 073, 080, 575, 7068, 7332Evening: 740, 9137, 10327, 6229, 2582, 7768, 161, 7927 (frame 3) 138 Highest break 80 (frame 5) 1 Century breaks 0

Qualifying draw The results of the qualifying rounds are shown below. Numbers in parentheses denote the players' seeding and an "(a)" denotes amateur players not on the main tour. The match winners are shown in bold.

Note: w/d=withdrawn; w/o=walkover

Century breaks Main stage centuries A total of 40 century breaks were made during the main stage of the tournament in Taiyuan.

140, 134, 134, 133, 119, 115, 108, 100 Zhou Yuelong 140, 130 Stuart Bingham 139, 132, 113, 103 Shaun Murphy 138, 138, 137, 114, 102 Mark Selby 134, 132, 118 Zhang Anda 134, 120 Noppon Saengkham 132, 122, 113, 110 David Gilbert 132 Xiao Guodong 122, 114, 102 Neil Robertson 118, 111 Liu Hongyu 110 Chris Wakelin 108 Si Jiahui 106, 100 Wu Yize 101 Yao Pengcheng 100 Ronnie O'Sullivan

Qualifying stage centuries A total of 80 century breaks were made during the qualifying stage of the tournament in Leicester.

147, 119 Michael Holt 140, 110, 104 Xu Si 140 Chen Ruifu 138 George Pragnell 137, 120 Joe O'Connor 137 Zhou Yuelong 137 Artemijs Žižins 136, 102 Matthew Selt 135, 133 Liu Hongyu 135, 106, 103 Liam Highfield 134, 133 Ali Carter 134 Marco Fu 134 Long Zehuang 133, 105 Lyu Haotian 133, 101, 100 Tom Ford 132, 126, 119 Hossein Vafaei 132 Chang Bingyu 130 Steven Hallworth 130 Anthony McGill 129 Alfie Burden 127, 118 Lan Yuhao 125, 125 Sam Craigie 125, 107 Hammad Miah 123, 113 Andrew Higginson 123, 107, 100 Jackson Page 122, 118, 103 Florian Nüßle 122, 116 Jamie Jones 121 T. Tirapongpaiboon 120 Zhang Anda 119 Ben Mertens 117 David Gilbert 116, 116 Fan Zhengyi 116 Ian Burns 115 He Guoqiang 114, 112, 108, 105 Liam Pullen 114, 112, 101 Jiang Jun 114 Liam Davies 114 Duane Jones 114 David Lilley 114 Robert Milkins 112 Mark Joyce 112 Jimmy White 107 Luca Brecel 104 Stuart Bingham 104 Liu Yang 103 Mateusz Baranowski 102 Jamie Clarke 100 Julien Leclercq 100 Mitchell Mann 100 Matthew Stevens 100 Ricky Walden

Notes

References