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Snooker: China to stage the World Open

 

Pa
Monday 09 January 2012 13:44 GMT
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The World Open will be held in the Chinese city of Haikou for the next five years, World Snooker has announced.

The world ranking tournament, details of which were confirmed at a press conference in China today, will be known as the Haikou World Open.

World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn said: "We are delighted to announce the staging of the World Open in Haikou for the next five years.

"The popularity of snooker in China continues to grow at a phenomenal rate and we have capitalised on that by establishing a third full ranking event, alongside the China Open and Shanghai Masters.

"We expect to make more announcements about events in China in the coming weeks."

The 2012 tournament runs from February 27 to March 4 and features the world's top 16 players. They will be joined by 16 qualifiers and eight wild cards at the final venue.

All matches up to and including the quarter-finals will be best-of-nine frames.

The World Open has previously been known as the Grand Prix and LG Cup, and adopted its current guise in 2010, when Neil Robertson took the title in Glasgow.

PA

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