China Open & Wuhan Open 2026: Preview & Fantasy Five Picks

Two ranking events land in China inside three weeks, and every player in the top two pots is in both draws. The China Open returns on 8th August after seven years away, and the Wuhan Open follows on 23rd August.

The essentials

• China Open: 8th to 16th August, Taiyuan. First edition since 2019, and at £250,000 to the winner the richest event ever staged in the Far East.
• Last champion: Neil Robertson, who beat Jack Lisowski 11-4 in Beijing in 2019. He is in this draw.
• China Open field: 34. Sixteen seeds, sixteen qualifiers, two Chinese wildcards. Hossein Vafaei and Anthony McGill must win a wildcard match to reach the last 32.
• Wuhan Open: 23rd to 29th August. Xiao Guodong defends, having won it in each of the last two seasons.
• Wuhan Open field: 64 in the opening round, though half of it went ahead in the Leicester qualifiers in June.
• Deadlines: midnight as Saturday 8th August begins, then midnight as Sunday 23rd August begins. Both UK time.

What the summer told us

Jak Jones won the Championship League, beating David Gilbert 3-2 in the final for the first ranking title of his career. Those two lead the Fantasy Five scoring on 33,000 and 23,000, both on a ×3 multiplier. Hossein Vafaei and Noppon Saengkham put up 11,000 apiece. Zhao Xintong, the only Pot 1 player who entered, managed 2,000.

Then the Shanghai Masters finished on Sunday. It is invitational, so none of it scores, but as a form guide it was gold. Judd Trump won it for the first time, beating Kyren Wilson 11-6 after taking John Higgins apart 6-0 with 515 unanswered points. Wu Yize made the semis and finished off Si Jiahui with 108, 140 and 140 back to back. Xiao Guodong made his fourth career maximum, the 246th in pro snooker, and still lost 6-5.

Who actually made it

Read the bottom row twice. Two Pot 5 players out of sixty-three made the China Open, and they are Jiang Jun and Yao Pengcheng. Pot 3 is barely healthier, with ten of its sixteen knocked out in June. The top two tiers are untouched. That is the Championship League turned on its head, so the dependable points sit at the top of the board while the multipliers come down to a few survivors.

Pot 1 (×1)

Judd Trump scored 462,350 last season and arrives off the Shanghai Masters title. He opens against Noppon Saengkham in Taiyuan and Florian Nüßle in Wuhan. Wu Yize topped the whole game last season on 860,300 and is the reigning world champion. Neil Robertson, the last man to win a China Open, sits second only to Wu on 738,500, though he drew Chang Bingyu, the toughest of the sixteen openers on paper. Zhao Xintong scored 666,800 and reached the Shanghai semis. Shaun Murphy put up 628,900 and lost 6-5 to Wu Yize in the Shanghai quarters. John Higgins is the lowest scorer of the six on 399,600 and went out 6-0 to Trump in Shanghai.

Pot 2 (×1)

All ten are in both draws. Five of them scored over 350,000 last season, led by Mark Selby on 484,350, though Selby went out 6-5 to Zhou Yuelong in the first round in Shanghai. Xiao Guodong has won the Wuhan Open in each of the last two years, beating Gary Wilson 10-9 in last season's final, and more than half his season total came from that one week. Ronnie O'Sullivan is entered for both, having skipped a fair chunk of the UK calendar in recent seasons. He made three centuries in a row against Kyren Wilson in Shanghai and still lost 6-4, with Wilson going on to reach the final.

Pot 3 (×3)

The qualifiers did their damage here. Exactly three Pot 3 players are in both draws.

Thepchaiya Un-Nooh is out of both, having lost to Yao Pengcheng in June and then to Dylan Emery. Jack Lisowski, Gary Wilson, Ali Carter, Stephen Maguire and Elliot Slessor each miss one of the two. Of the three in both draws, Gilbert has scored the most this season.

Pot 4 (×4)

Eight Pot 4 players are in Taiyuan, eleven are in Wuhan and three are in both.

Chang Bingyu scored 143,100 last season, the highest in the tier, and at ×4 that is 572,400. He beat a Pot 3 player in each of his last two qualifiers. A run to the last eight is worth more than most Pot 1 names manage at face value. He drew Neil Robertson in the last 32, so a Pot 4 sub who is also playing matters.

Pot 5 (×5)

This month the biggest multiplier on the board is nearly a two-horse race.

Jiang Jun and Yao Pengcheng are the two in both draws. Jiang Jun was the highest-scoring Pot 5 player in the game last season on 72,600, which is 363,000 at ×5. He reached Taiyuan by beating Jak Jones, who went on to win the Championship League. He has Si Jiahui in the last 32, then very likely Si Jiahui again at Wuhan. Yao Pengcheng knocked out Un-Nooh and Lisowski in qualifying and drew Wu Yize. Everyone else in the tier scores nothing in Taiyuan.

The captain and the plan

The armband doubles on top of the pot multiplier, so where you put it matters as much as who wears it. Trump at ×1 doubles to ×2, which caps the ceiling but is the steadiest option given his form. Gilbert at ×3 becomes ×6. Chang Bingyu at ×4 becomes ×8, with the risk that comes with it.

You get one transfer per tournament, so this is two separate decisions rather than one. Name your five for Taiyuan, see who comes through, then use the transfer before Wuhan. Any starter who scores nothing is covered by that pot's sub, provided the sub scored, so keep the bench filled with players who are in these draws rather than watching at home. Most of them already have points from June too, because the China Open paid down to the last 112 of qualifying.

Teams are confirmed at midnight as Saturday 8th August begins.

FAQ

Does the Shanghai Masters count in Fantasy Five? No. It is invitational, so nothing from Shanghai scores a team any points.

What if my player lost in qualifying? It depends how far they got. The China Open pays from the last 112 onwards, 2,500 there and 7,500 for losing in the last 48. Wuhan pays nothing until the last 96, which is worth 1,500. Only the earliest rounds finish on zero.

When is my team confirmed? Midnight at the start of the tournament's first day, UK time, so only a couple of hours before the first match.