New Wuhan Open champion Chang Bingyu reveals sacrifices parents made for snooker glory

The 83rd and newest member of professional snooker’s ranking event winners’ club is Chang Bingyu following his memorable 10-7 final win over compatriot Zhao Xintong to claim the 2026 Wuhan Open crown. The 24-year-old is the tenth player from mainland China admitted to it.

Heading into this week’s main venue, televised stages in Wuhan, Chang - who had to navigate two qualifying rounds held in Leicester, England back in June to feature in them - arrived as the world number 45. He is one of the lowest ranked cueists to lift a ranking trophy, but his success on Saturday at the Optics Valley Gymnasium was no surprise to those in the know.

Chang initially turned professional in 2019 and it wasn’t long before he caught the attention of Ronnie O’Sullivan who labelled him as “super-talented” and “very dangerous” at the 2020 Scottish Open.

In December 2022, Chang was suspended from the professional circuit, and later banned for two years after being found guilty for his role in the Chinese player match-fixing scandal that rocked the sport. The youngster admitted to his wrongdoing and entered a guilty plea.

After serving his punishment, Chang regained his professional tour card by winning the 2025 Asia Pacific Championship held in Australia, and returned full-time to the professional circuit only a few months later.

Since then, Chang has been writing very positive headlines on a regular basis. He reached his maiden ranking event final at the 2025 Scottish Open, made three maximum 147 breaks within the space of eight months, and at the Welsh Open earlier this year produced an outrageous 100% pot success rate display that earned him a standing ovation from his opponent Shaun Murphy and the audience.

In the Far East this week, Chang defeated world number one Judd Trump 5-1 in the quarters, seven-times World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan 6-3 in the semis, and soon-to-be world number one Zhao 10-7. In fact, throughout his seven-match winning streak to his maiden ranking title, he won all his matches by at least three frames.

Chang admits he didn’t fancy beating Zhao before Wuhan Open final

Zhao has been a big source of inspiration to the Chinese players since being crowned Asia’s first world snooker champion in the spring of 2025. The now-29-year-old has won four more professional titles since then, and has now climbed to the top of the world rankings - only the second Asian to do so behind Ding Junhui who first did it in 2014.

Such is that element of hero worship, speaking to World Snooker Tour after his Wuhan glory, Chang admitted that he approached the final with trepidation.

“Before the match, I honestly didn’t think I could beat him” said Chang, who will earn a debut invite to the Champion of Champions held in November.

“He was the world number one, after all, so I just wanted to learn from him. I’ve watched a lot of his matches over the past few years and learned a great deal from him. So I went into the final with the same attitude of learning.

“Fortunately, his cueing didn’t seem to be quite there today and he made quite a few mistakes, so I was able to take advantage of them. To be honest, I’ve actually been imitating a lot of things in my own game from watching him play. I think the way he plays snooker is really elegant and attractive, but at the same time very practical.”

Prior to his defeat, Zhao had won all seven previous professional finals he had appeared in.

‘Shaking’ Chang on being unable to control his excitement

Within the same calendar year of his top-flight comeback, Chang defeated Stephen Maguire, Kyren Wilson, Mark Selby, and Mark Allen en route to the Scottish Open final. He went into the title match against Chris Wakelin as the favourite in many people’s eyes, but from 2-1 up, he watched his opponent string together eight successive frames in a one-sided 9-2 outcome.

A sore moment for Chang, but the experience motivated and put him in good stead for his challenge against Zhao.

He said: “Last year, I was really disappointed to lose the final in Scotland. After losing that final, I wanted the title so badly. From then on, I kept telling myself every day that if I reached another final, I had to take the opportunity.

“Today, playing Zhao Xintong in the final, my initial thought was just to play as well as I could and produce my best form. But when it actually came down to match point (last two frames), to those final few balls, the excitement inside me was impossible to control.

“It was very similar to the feeling I had when I made my second 147 (last season, big money), especially those final few balls. My hands were shaking, just like today, but fortunately I managed to pot them all.”

Chang on his parents selling their house for his snooker dream

There are more big tournaments in China and the Far East on the professional calendar than ever before, but the Chinese players are still based in the UK for huge spells throughout the year.

Still predominantly a UK-based circuit, it’s easy to forget or overlook the huge sacrifices that ‘overseas’ player make in order to follow their snooker dreams on the other side of the world where people talk a different language.

Nowadays, with various academies and the roster of Chinese players significant, that transition is a little bit easier, but still likely to be a huge culture change for them.

Chang explained the journey that he and his parents went on in order to achieve his ambitions, and how grateful he is for their support: “I’m really grateful to my parents. They’ve really sacrificed a lot for me.

“When I was very young, my dad sold our house and quit his job so that he could accompany me to Guangdong to practise properly.

“He also accompanied me when I went to England. Later, my mum was with me every day for the past couple of years, looking after my day-to-day life and everything else. I’m really grateful to them. Without them, I definitely wouldn’t be where I am today.

“I’m also particularly grateful to my team recently. Since I finished the China Open in Taiyuan, I’ve been working closely with them, and they’ve arranged my daily routine. That has been a huge help to my performance this time, so I’m especially thankful to them.”

Chang on the ‘big gap’ between him and the world’s elite

In one swoop, the £175,000 payday that Chang receives for his Wuhan Open win thrusts him up 23 places in the updated world rankings to 22nd - an incredible position considering he has just over one year’s worth of points compared to other’s two.

With qualification to all three Players Series events later this term highly likely already, Chang is within touching distance of a berth in the elite world’s top 16 for the first time. However, the Chinese cueman still feels there is a large difference between himself and that band of players.

“I still have a big gap to the top 16, so in this match, my emotions were still going up and down quite a lot. So I still need to improve mentally and make myself more stable and composed.”

Chang’s next engagement on the professional scene is at next week’s 2026 British Open in Cheltenham where he is scheduled to face Chatchapong Nasa in the round of 64.

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