World Snooker Keep the Bubbles flowing
World Snooker are having a series of 'Champagne Moments' during the Betfred.com World Championship at Sheffield as they roll out a raft of new announcements.
Today's good news is that World Snooker have signed a new three year agreement to stage the Wuxi Classic In Jiangsu Province, China.
Previously called the Jiangsu Classic, the event was a landmark first professional title for Mark Allen last year.
The defending champion declared himself delighted with the news. "It was great, I won it!" laughed Allen.
"All the players want more tournaments to play in and if this is a step towards another ranking event in China, it's great news.
"All these tournaments are very good practice in the build up to the start of the season."
This year's event will be staged 2-6 June 2010 in a new venue, being purpose-built for the snooker.
Packed houses will be guaranteed in the city that is the home of Ding Junhui.
Last year's round robin format has been replaced by the traditional knock out, thus providing longer matches more in keeping with ranking events.
There will be a 12 man invited field comprising eight professionals and four local wildcards.
Defending champion Mark Allen heads the field and will be joined by Allister Carter, Ryan Day, Marco Fu, Ding Junhui, Shaun Murphy and Stephen Hendry.
Barry Hearn, the WSA Chairman entused "This new agreement demonstrates both snooker's growing popularity in China and their desire for more professional World Snooker tournaments.
"China is a key market for World Snooker and it is important we continue to work with our partners to nurture snooker's growth for the benefit of our new fans and all the World Snooker players.
Ding Junhui was delighted to hear of the news of a major event in his home city saying "It's a good tournament every summer, and every year I've done well.
"It is good for the people to watch top snoooker and Wuxi is my home town. I like playing in front of my home fans."
