CHINESE PLAYERS STRUGGLING TO BREAKTHROUGH

You might think the headline is a joke, since Yan Bingtao just won the Masters aged 20! But is he leading a generation that will see Chinese players really take over, as it's been predicted for so long now?

Well, it's clear that Yan Bingtao is totally out of the curve - born in 2000's, he won a Triple Crown event before anyone born in the 1990's. It's not fair to set the bar on his early success, but when we reflect about all those talents coming from the far east we remember that most people expected that by now China would dominate, and they only have two established top players right now - Yan himself and Ding Junhui.

Xiao Guodong is 31, Cao Yupeng is 30, Tian Pengfei is 33, Liang Wenbo is 33 and although that's not old in snooker terms, it's been a while since we've seen these four players play really well - in the last few years they seem to be getting worse.

Fact is that, that first storm of great Chinese young talented players is not young anymore, and it didn't turn out to be anything even close of a tour takeover.

Of course they haven't stopped and they won't stop. China loves snooker and can't wait to see one of their own lift the trophy at the Crucible. Too many sports have experienced that if China wants to take over, they probably will at any cost. But then, even their new talent haven't broken through yet. 

Like I said, Yan is the stand-out exception whom I think will be their first World Champion and will turn out to be one of the greatest ever, although he was an under-the-radar prospect a few years back. The box office Chinese youngsters were Zhou Yuelong and Zhao Xintong. Well, those two are still very young - 23 and 24 respectively - and already top 32 players. But yet, they don't seem to be evolving as fast as expected. 10 combined seasons on tour between them, and the only relevant result from either was Zhou's run to the 2020 European Masters final - he lost 0-9 to Neil Robertson eventually in the final, but it would be rough to judge him by that scoreline.

What do you think about China vs Rest of the World in snooker? I definitely think they'll have a World Champion this decade. I would put 45% on Yan, 30% on Ding and 25% on the field if I had to split their chances. And soon I think China will have more professionals on tour than any other country. Of course, it's "quantity x quality" for China at the moment, but what would you do to help Chinese youngsters reach their full potential on the main tour if you ran the Chinese assoctiation of snooker?

Follow Down the Rail on Instagram and like our page on Facebook for all things snooker!