Chinese players axed from top snooker tournament as match-fixing crisis rocks the popular billiards sport

LONDON — A match-fixing ungraded has led to the suspension of 10 Chinese players from snooker's apical touring circuit, including 2 large names from the fashionable billiards sport.

The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association announced Tuesday that it had suspended Zhao Xintong and his compatriot Zhang Jiankang from competing successful the World Snooker Tour. Both players person the close to entreaty against the decision.

Zhao — the ninth-ranked subordinate successful the satellite who is considered 1 of the sport's apical prospects — won the U.K. Championship successful 2021 to assertion his archetypal ranking rubric and go lone the 4th non-British subordinate successful past to triumph astatine the event.

The announcement marked the latest successful a bid of suspensions arsenic portion of an ongoing probe into the fixing of snooker matches for betting purposes.

Alongside Zhao, notable among the 10 suspensions was the 2021 Masters champion Yan Bingtao, whom the WPBSA banned connected Dec. 12., soon earlier Chen Zifan.

Lu Ning, Li Hang, Zhao Jianbo, Bai Langning and Chang Bingyu were suspended successful aboriginal December, aft Liang Wenbo became the archetypal subordinate named successful October.

Both Yan and Zhao were owed to instrumentality portion successful the 2023 Masters, which begins Sunday and concludes connected Jan. 15, but some person been replaced successful the gully for the top-tier event.

"This determination is portion of an ongoing probe into allegations of manipulating the result of matches for betting purposes successful breach of the WPBSA Conduct Regulations," the assemblage said successful a connection Tuesday.

"The WPBSA tin corroborate that the wider probe is present astatine an precocious stage, and it is anticipated volition beryllium completed soon astatine which constituent immoderate imaginable charges volition beryllium considered."

CNBC has contacted the WST for remark from the players' representatives. None of the 10 suspended players person spoken publically to the U.K. property since the WPBSA announcements.