Chang Bingyu defeats frustrated Ronnie O'Sullivan and advances to Wuhan Open final

The world number 45 - who had to win two qualifying round matches held in Leicester back in June - advances to the second ranking event final of his fledgling career.

Saturday’s title decider in the Far East is guaranteed to be an all-Chinese affair, with Chang facing either reigning champion Xiao Guodong, or soon-to-be new world number one Zhao Xintong. Those two meet later on Friday.

Many would have expected fireworks in the contest between Chang and O’Sullivan, but neither player could truly find a sustained rhythm; perhaps a sign of their mutual respect for each other.

Chang deposited the opening frame of the tie and then doubled his lead with a 73. O'Sullivan - without a ranking title triumph since January 2024 - was showing frustration, but would have felt a little bit better with an excellently crafted break of 82 in frame three when the balls weren’t placed ideally.

Both players made errors in a scrappy 30-minute fourth frame, but it was the 50-year-old Englishman who got the job done on the colours to level up at 2-2 heading into the mid-session interval.

However, just as O’Sullivan was building momentum, he spurned opportunities by missing blacks off their spot in both frames five and six when amongst the balls, and on both occasions he was punished by his young opponent.

Record 41-time ranking event winner O’Sullivan kept in touch with a 58 to win frame seven and half his arrears at 4-3, but he missed another simple pot in the eighth that Chang took with the aid of a 69, before the 24-year-old completed his biggest professional victory, so far, in the next.

This was his first win over O’Sullivan having lost their previous two meetings, including at last year’s Saudi Arabia Masters where he relinquished a 5-2 lead in a 6-5 defeat.

Chang is one of snooker’s hottest young properties, and performances over the past year or so have shown us why so many pundits have been marking him for success at the highest level. He is now one win away from becoming a ranking event champion.

Following his ban from the sport for his part in the Chinese player match-fixing scandal from a few seasons ago, Chang served his punishment and reclaimed his tour card in April 2025 by winning the Asia-Pacific Snooker Championship held in Australia.

He reached his maiden ranking event final at the Scottish Open last December, and within the space of only eight months compiled three maximum 147 breaks - two of which came in the UK and World Championship qualifiers which earned him a bonus of £147,000.

At the Welsh Open last February, Chang received a standing ovation from the audience and his opponent Shaun Murphy after making four centuries in a 4-0 whitewash win, and finishing with a 100% pot success rate.

He has enjoyed a brilliant start to the 2026/27 season, qualifying for several main venues already, and is the circuit’s top century break-maker with 19.

O’Sullivan still left searching for form despite glimpses of magic

Throughout this week, O’Sullivan has issued a scathing and downbeat assessment of his current game. Having previously branded himself as a ‘very, very poor player’ after his China Open exit earlier this month, this week, the seven-times World Champion has talked in a similar theme, saying that he had “absolutely no chance” of winning this latest Wuhan Open title.

Despite all that, today’s sloppy, out-of-sorts performance might be a perplexing one for a frustrated O’Sullivan, who did navigate four rounds earlier this week, including a 5-3 win over newly-minted China Open champion Mark Selby in the previous round, during which he compiled five breaks over 70, including a 129.

At the time of writing, O’Sullivan’s next scheduled action on the World Snooker Tour is this Monday in the opening round of the 2026 British Open in Cheltenham.

To view the full draw, results, schedule, and other information from the 2026 Wuhan Open snooker, visit our tournament information centre here.