Xiao Guodong wins the 2024 Wuhan Open and claims his maiden ranking title


The £140,000 top prize pushes Xiao up to 18th in the world rankings - his highest-ever position - and he will now have his sights set on breaking into the sport's elite top 16 bracket over the coming weeks.
A new ranking event champion was guaranteed at the China Optics Valley Convention & Exhibition Centre as Xiao and Si met in the third all-Chinese ranking final. Xiao featured in the first, over 11 years ago at the 2013 Shanghai Masters when he lost to Ding Junhui; that was his first appearance in a showpiece match of ranked status.
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Xiao reached the final having defeated three multiple-time ranking event champions in successive rounds along the way, including a dramatic 5-4 win over reigning World Champion Kyren Wilson in the last 32. On Friday in the semi-finals, Xiao recovered from 4-1 down to deny Wuhan local Long Zehaung, 6-4.
The opening two frames of the title match went to Xiao (breaks of 54, 74), but Si - who made his first maximum 147 in professional competition in the last four - struck a 109 in frame three to get on the board.
35-year-old Xiao responded by claiming frames either side of the mid-session interval on the final black to establish a 4-1 advantage, although Si (84 break, frame 7) closed the gap back to just one.
However, Xiao registered a run of 129 in frame eight before a counter-attack of 73 - having arrived at the table 54-0 down in points - in the final frame of the opening session to put him 6-3 up going into the evening's concluding act.
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On resumption, Xiao extended his advantage with frame 10, and despite world number 13 Si compiling a 109 to make it 7-4, Xiao made his eighth century of the tournament in frame 12 - a 113 - before reaching the hill at 9-4 up with the help of a 77 in frame 13.
They say that depositing the winning frame is the toughest, and that became the case for Xiao following the final intermission of tie.
As Xiao began to slightly clam up, Si rallied in his typical free-flowing style as contributions of 76, 131 - his ninth ton of the competition - and 83 helped him string together three frames in-a-row and close to within two at 9-7.
It looked like Si was going just one behind as he also fashioned an advantage in frame 17, but Xiao - despite missing a couple of previous opportunities - successfully laid a fiendish snooker which subsequently paved the path to glory as he sank the final red and the remaining balls he required to cue a concession from his gracious opponent before the final blue.
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Having first turned professional in 2007, Xiao's greatest day in the sport is reward for over 16 years (he wasn't on tour for the 2008/09 term) of hard graft on snooker's top tier. He is the 11th player from Asia to lift a ranking trophy and the seventh from mainland China.
Despite being in the first half of October, Xiao has now banked over £200,000 this campaign, making it his most lucrative season on the professional circuit by almost double. He can also look forward to a place at the Champion of Champions for the first time in his career.
Si will be disappointed having not produced more of the same form he exhibited during his sizzling 6-2 win over world number one and defending Wuhan Open champion Judd Trump in the semis. It was a display that Trump described as “the best performance there has been against me, by quite far."
However, Si consolidates his place within the world's top 16 as he aims to be a seed at the upcoming UK Championship for the first time and a debutant at the Masters in January.
The next action on the World Snooker Tour will be the main venue and televised stages of the 2024 Northern Ireland Open which take place between October 20-27. Information on that event, here.
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