Last year’s finalists Stephen Maguire and Shaun Murphy
Not long to go now until the China Open, the penultimate ranking event of the season is upon on us and news has just reached me concerning the identity of the wildcards who will be involved…
This year there will be seven Chinese wildcards involved and they are as follows:
- Tian Pengfei (plays David Gray)
- Tang Jun (plays Judd Trump)
- Yu Delu (plays Rod Lawler)
- Xiao Guodong (plays Michael Holt)
- Cao Kaisheng (plays Ricky Walden)
- Cao Xinlong (plays John Parrott)
- Cao Yupeng (plays Stuart Pettman)
At first glance most of the wildcards are familiar to me, of course Tian Pengfei and Xiao Guodong are former main tour professionals whilst Yu Delu and Cao Xinlong were involved in the Shanghai Masters. Tang Jun’s most notable run appears to have been reaching the final of the China Tour before losing to Ding Junhui this January, whilst Kaisheng has was a wildcard in the 2005 China Open where he lost out 5-2 against Stuart Bingham.