Chang Bingyu wins professional snooker tour return following match-fixing ban

The title victory means that Chang is set to receive a two-year professional tour card from the 2025/26 campaign that starts in a few months’ time.

It will be a return to the World Snooker Tour for the 22-year-old following his two-year ban from the sport for match-fixing.

Players from several nations took part in this year’s Asia Pacific Open Snooker Championship, a tournament that was won last year by Lei Peifan, who several months later claimed his maiden professional ranking title at the Scottish Open.

Chang breezed through his round robin group, winning all his matches 3-0 to reach the knockout phases. He then eliminated Sahil Prasad (Fiji) 3-0 and Lomnaw Issarangkun (Thailand) 4-1 before compiling a trio of century breaks (104, 133, 134) in a 4-2 quarter-final success over Wan Nansen Sin Man (Hong Kong).

Returning for Finals Day, Chang whitewashed Chau Hon Man 5-0 in the last four, constructing runs of 106 and 135 in the process.

Coming through the other side of the draw was Australia’s Thomerson, who was relegated from the professional circuit last season.

The 30-year-old - who won the inaugural edition of this tournament in 2022 - survived back-to-back deciding frame finishes in reaching the final. He ousted Fung Kwok Wai (Hong Kong) 4-3 in the last eight and fellow countryman Vinnie Calabrese 5-4 in the semi-finals.

However, Chang proved to be just too powerful in the final. Breaks of 72, 105 and 107 helped Chang establish a 3-0 lead, and although Thomerson got on the board with frame four, further efforts of 83 and 72 helped the Chinese cueist get across the line.

Chang Bingyu’s career and why he was banned from the professional snooker circuit

As a teenager, Chang finished top of the Chinese domestic rankings in 2019, an achievement that earned him a spot on the professional snooker tour for the first time in his career later that same year.

His first season as a pro was curtailed due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, as he went back home and missed the World Championship.

However, in his second season, Chang kept his place on tour via the one-year list, having defeated Mark Allen on his way to the last 32 of the UK Championship, and Tom Ford as he got to the final qualifying round of the World Championship.

In late 2022, Chang was one of several Chinese players who were suspended from the World Snooker Tour pending an investigation into match-fixing within the sport.

Following the outcome of the investigation, in June 2023 Chang was given a three-year suspension, reduced to two years because of early admissions and a guilty plea. He was also ordered to pay costs of £7,500.

The punishment was related to a match he fixed whilst playing in on the 28th September 2022, although Chang later claimed that Liang Wenbo - seen as a ringleader in the wider match-fixing scandal - had threatened him to do so, as reported here.

Chang’s ban expired in December 2024, and he was therefore able to play in this year’s Asia Pacific event and earn back his tour card. He is set to join former UK Championship winner Zhao Xintong - another player who will be resuming his full-time professional snooker career following a ban - on the sport’s top tier later this year.