25th Asian Championships open in Tansheng, China.
A high quality field has gathered in China for the 25th Anniversary staging of the Asian Championship. The man who emerges victorious on 10 May is eligible for nomination for a place on the WSA Main Tour in 2009-10.
Last year's winner Jin Long is missing from the line up as he is now on the Main Professional Tour, and in his place the beaten finalist last year, Aditya Mehta from India, is installed as number one seed.
But he will be faced by a plethora of talent from across the region. Probably the best known face in the field will be Thailand's James Wattana. A young Wattana won this event way back in 1986 and he repeated that achievement in 1988.
Two vastly experienced players Mohammed Shehab and Mohammed Joker are representing UAE and both have previously professional experience.
The host country, China, have a squad of players, any of whom is capable of lifting the title. Yu Delu, Tian Pengfei, Cai Xinlong, Mei Xiwen and Shi Hanqing will be hoping to have the home fans cheering.
There has only been one match played today, and Tian Pengfei got the event off to a stunning start, rolling in 133 before missing the final black for a possible 140 total clearance.
He went on to beat James Ortega, from the Philippines, 4-0. Ortega, better known as one of the Philippines best pool players is joined in the field by Benjamin Guevarra. They'll be hoping to emulate the feat of their countryman Malon Manalo, who stunned the snooker world by winning this event in 2000.
Global Snooker will bring you all the latest results thoughout the event and we would like to publicly thank Tournament Director Ken Hui, from Hong Kong, for all his assistance and hard work on this event.
