Age: 30
Country: China
Best finish: X2 Ranking Finals
An ongoing challenge over recent seasons has been trying to identify the Chinese youngster most likely to break into snooker’s elite. To emulate, and surpass Ding Junhui. Will it be Zhou Yuelong, Yan Bingtao, Zhao Xintong or even Pang Junxu?
Yan’s Masters victory sets the standard but he hasn’t consistently produced at the highest level yet. I suspect they may all be surpassed this term by one who has been forced to mature.
Three years ago CAO YUPENG had the world at this feet. Rising fast up the rankings yet still a novice and flaky in contention, as two ranking final defeats demonstrated, one from four up with five to play.
Then disaster and shame struck, as he was banned for match fixing. Many of us thought that was the last we’d see of him. Wrong. Yupeng is back, and with a vengeance.
Age: 33
Country: Wales
Best finish: X3 Semi-Finals
What a brilliant 2020/21 season JAMIE JONES had – his first season back from a 12 month ban. It was as if he had never left the tour.
In just his sixth event back, he made the Scottish Open semi-finals (a third ranking semi-final), defeating Kyren Wilson and Matthew Stevens on the way until he was halted by Mark Selby. At the U.K. Championship before that, he made the last 16, defeating future Welsh Open champion Jordan Brown and the dangerous Alexander Ursenbacher.
The Welsh Warrior, as he’s known, made the Crucible in April for a fourth time, defeating World Senior champion David Lilley, then two class acts in Michael Holt and Li Hang with considerable ease. He proved himself yet again on the big stage by taking out Stephen Maguire 10-4 from 3-0 down until Stuart Bingham was a bit too heavy handed for him in the break building department in the last 16. I doubt Jones could have dreamt of this moment when he was stacking shelves at Tesco a year previously.
In his interview after the win over Maguire, Jones stated he’s a much more rounded player now, has never felt so calm at a World Championship and is so patient in his play. He was prepared to play safety after safety against Maguire, and wait for his opportunity when previously he might of had a sling at one, missed and left the opponent in to counter.
It’s all about maturity with Jones. The time away from snooker, having a child of his own, has made him grow up. He has seriously took his chance since last year's Q School promotion.
Outside of Brown, he had the most sterling of seasons for a then outside top-64 player. He starts the season at rank 55 in the world. Even with nearly £100,000 banked in prize fund last season, there will be no relenting, but what a comforting sight after one season back to be fully in the 64’.
The only way is up from now on. I think Jones will be knocking on the top-32 door come the end of the season and it would not surprise me if he’s top-16 bound in roughly three seasons. Once Mark Williams retires, Jones will be vouching for top dog in Wales and a top-16 flag bearer for his home country.
Age: 20
Country: Wales
Best finish: X2 Fourth Round
It feels like JACKSON PAGE has been around for quite a long time now, but he's still only 20. Now, he'll want to start stepping up to the plate.
The Welshman turned professional in 2019, but struggled to pick up good results over the past couple of years. However, he impressively came through Q School in the summer – beating Michael Judge, Soheil Vahedi and Michael Georgiou along the way – and is making the right noises about succeeding on tour this time.
Age: 25
Country: England
Best finish: Welsh Open Semi-Finals, 2019
JOE O’CONNOR’s career still feels like it's awaiting lift-off, having announced himself to the snooker world with a run to the semi-finals of the Welsh Open in 2019 before struggling to make quite the same impact since. O’Connor lowered the colours of John Higgins in the quarter-finals there, having beaten Ding Junhui and Kyren Wilson earlier in the week.
Ronnie O’Sullivan – working for Eurosport – couldn’t hide his enthusiasm for O’Connor at the time, proclaiming: ‘He's gonna be a big star. He's got something different about him: he looks good; he looks calm; he looks the part. He looks snazzy'. As Judd Trump will testify, sharp shoes and a slick haircut are no guarantees to success, and O’Connor found the following season a largely frustrating one.
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