The Most Famous

SNOOKERS from China

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This page contains a list of the greatest Chinese Snookers. The pantheon dataset contains 67 Snookers, 6 of which were born in China. This makes China the birth place of the 2nd most number of Snookers.

Top 6

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Chinese Snookers of all time. This list of famous Chinese Snookers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography's online popularity.

Photo of Ding Junhui

1. Ding Junhui (b. 1987)

With an HPI of 48.44, Ding Junhui is the most famous Chinese Snooker.  His biography has been translated into 32 different languages on wikipedia.

Ding Junhui (Chinese: 丁俊晖; born 1 April 1987) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He is the most successful Asian player in the history of the sport. Throughout his career, he has won 15 major ranking titles, including three UK Championships (2005, 2009, 2019), and in 2014, became the first Asian world number one. He has twice reached the final of the Masters, winning once in 2011. In 2016, he became the first Asian player to reach the final of the World Championship. Ding began playing snooker at age nine and rose to international prominence in 2002 after winning the Asian Under-21 Championship and the Asian Championship. At age 15, he became the youngest winner of the IBSF World Under-21 Championship. In 2003, Ding turned professional at the age of 16. His first major professional successes came in 2005 when he won the China Open and the UK Championship, becoming the first player from outside Great Britain and Ireland to win the title. During his career, he has compiled more than 600 century breaks, including seven maximum breaks, in professional play. He is the only Asian player to be ranked world number one, which he first achieved in 2014 to become the 11th player to reach the top spot. He is a long-time resident of Sheffield, England, and owns the Ding Junhui Snooker Academy in the same city.

Photo of Zhao Xintong

2. Zhao Xintong (b. 1997)

With an HPI of 45.37, Zhao Xintong is the 2nd most famous Chinese Snooker.  His biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Zhao Xintong (Chinese: 赵心童; born 3 April 1997) is a Chinese professional snooker player and the reigning World Snooker Champion. He first turned professional in the 2016–17 season, aged 19, having previously recorded wins against a number of top professionals while competing as an amateur wildcard. He had a breakthrough season in 2021–22, during which he won his first ranking title at the 2021 UK Championship, defeating Luca Brecel 10–5 in the final, and first entered the top 16 in the snooker world rankings. He won his second ranking title at the 2022 German Masters with a 9‍–‍0 whitewash victory over Yan Bingtao in the final; he became only the third player, after Steve Davis and Neil Robertson, to win a two-session ranking final without conceding a single frame. He was ranked sixth in the world after the 2021–22 season. In January 2023, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association suspended Zhao as part of a match-fixing investigation involving ten Chinese players. He was subsequently charged with having knowledge of match-fixing and betting operations on the World Snooker Tour. Following an independent disciplinary tribunal, he was banned from competition for 30 months, although the WPBSA reduced his ban to 20 months, given his early admissions and guilty plea. Having lost his professional status, he returned to competition as an amateur player after his ban expired on 1 September 2024. He won four Q Tour events in a row between October 2024 and January 2025, thereby guaranteeing that he would top the 2024–25 Q Tour Europe rankings and regain his professional status for the start of the 2025–26 season. He became the first player to make a maximum break on the Q Tour, achieving the feat twice in Events 3 and 4. Still competing as an amateur, Zhao qualified for the main stage of the 2024 UK Championship but lost to Shaun Murphy in the first round. At the 2025 World Snooker Championship, he won four qualifying matches to reach the main stage, where he went on to defeat Ronnie O'Sullivan 17‍–‍7 in the semi-finals and Mark Williams 18‍–‍12 in the final to win his first world title, second Triple Crown title, and third ranking title. He became the first player from mainland China and also the first from Asia to win the world title; he was also the first player to win a ranking event while competing as an amateur. He became the fourth qualifier to win the world title, after Alex Higgins, Terry Griffiths, and Murphy. His performance at the World Championship meant that on his return to the professional tour, he would be entering the snooker world rankings as world number 11.

Photo of Liang Wenbo

3. Liang Wenbo (b. 1987)

With an HPI of 42.08, Liang Wenbo is the 3rd most famous Chinese Snooker.  His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Liang Wenbo (Chinese: 梁文博; born 5 March 1987) is a Chinese former professional snooker player. During his playing career, he won one ranking title at the 2016 English Open, twice won the World Cup for China in 2011 and 2017 with teammate Ding Junhui, and was runner-up at the 2009 Shanghai Masters and the 2015 UK Championship. He made 292 century breaks in professional competition, including three maximum breaks, and reached a career high of 11th in the snooker world rankings. In April 2022, Liang was convicted of domestic assault, after which the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) suspended him for four months. It suspended him again in October 2022 while investigating match-fixing allegations that later widened to implicate nine other Chinese players. A disciplinary tribunal found Liang guilty of multiple match-fixing offences as well as destroying evidence and not cooperating with the investigation. In June 2023, the WPBSA permanently banned Liang and compatriot Li Hang from the sport, the only two lifetime bans ever handed down in professional snooker. The Chinese Billiards and Snooker Association (CBSA) upheld the WPBSA's decision.

Photo of Xiao Guodong

4. Xiao Guodong (b. 1989)

With an HPI of 37.51, Xiao Guodong is the 4th most famous Chinese Snooker.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Xiao Guodong (Chinese: 肖国栋; born 10 February 1989) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He turned professional in 2007 after winning the Asian Under-21 Championships. He won his first ranking event 17 years after first turning professional at the 2024 Wuhan Open, beating Si Jiahui 10–7 in only the third all-Chinese ranking event final. He also took part in the first ever all-Chinese ranking event final, when he lost 6–10 to Ding Junhui in the 2013 Shanghai Masters.

Photo of Yan Bingtao

5. Yan Bingtao (b. 2000)

With an HPI of 35.73, Yan Bingtao is the 5th most famous Chinese Snooker.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Yan Bingtao (Chinese: 颜丙涛; born 16 February 2000) is a Chinese former professional snooker player who is currently serving a five-year ban from professional competition after committing a range of match-fixing offences. He rose to prominence by winning the ISBF World Snooker Championship, the sport's world amateur title, in 2014 at age 14, which made him the tournament's youngest ever winner. He turned professional in 2016. Aged 17 years and 284 days, Yan became the youngest player ever to contest a ranking final when he faced Mark Williams at the 2017 Northern Ireland Open, but lost in a deciding frame. Yan claimed his first ranking title at the 2019 Riga Masters, becoming the third Chinese player, after Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo, to win a ranking event. He made his Masters debut at the 2021 event, where he defeated John Higgins 10–8 in the final to win his first Triple Crown title. Aged 20, Yan became the youngest Masters winner since then-19-year-old Ronnie O'Sullivan won it in 1995. In December 2022, the WPBSA suspended Yan from the professional tour amid a match-fixing investigation. Following an independent disciplinary tribunal, he was banned from competing professionally until 11 December 2027.

Photo of Zhang Anda

6. Zhang Anda (b. 1991)

With an HPI of 34.14, Zhang Anda is the 6th most famous Chinese Snooker.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Zhang Anda (Chinese: 张安达; born 25 December 1991) is a Chinese professional snooker player, who made his debut on the Main Tour for the 2009–10 season. He qualified by winning the ACBS Asian Under-21 Championship. In November 2023 he won his first world ranking title by winning the International Championship. Standing at 5 ft. 3 in. (160 cm) tall, he is nicknamed "Mighty Mouse". Zhang lives in Sheffield, England, during the snooker season and practises at the Victoria Snooker Academy.

People

Pantheon has 6 people classified as Chinese snookers born between 1987 and 2000. Of these 6, 6 (100.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Chinese snookers include Ding Junhui, Zhao Xintong, and Liang Wenbo. As of April 2024, 6 new Chinese snookers have been added to Pantheon including Ding Junhui, Zhao Xintong, and Liang Wenbo.

Living Chinese Snookers

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Newly Added Chinese Snookers (2024)

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