Xiao Guodong

Xiao Guodong (Chinese: 肖国栋, born 10 February 1989) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He turned professional in 2007 after winning the Asian Under-21 Championships.

Xiao Guodong
Born (1989-02-10) 10 February 1989
Sport country China
Nickname
  • X-Factor
  • Longshot Xiao
  • Little Jelly
Professional2007/2008, 2009–
Highest ranking19 (February–March 2015)[1][2]
Current ranking 41 (as of 8 February 2021)
Career winnings£605,069
Highest break143:
2009 PIOS Event 6
Century breaks177
Best ranking finishRunner-up (2013 Shanghai Masters, 2017 Snooker Shoot Out)
Xiao Guodong
Simplified Chinese肖国栋
Traditional Chinese蕭國棟

Career

2007–2010

Xiao appeared as a wildcard in the 2007 China Open, and beat the then world number 50 Tom Ford 5–3, before losing 0–5 to Matthew Stevens.

In his first ranking tournament, the 2007 Grand Prix he finished 4th in his qualifying group by winning 3 out his 7 matches. In the 2007 Northern Ireland Trophy he beat Leo Fernandez 5-1 and Jimmy White 5–0, before he lost to David Gilbert 2–5.

He lost his first match in the 2007 UK Championship to Kurt Maflin and to the same player in the 2008 China Open qualifiers too. In the Welsh Open he lost to fellow Chinese player Liu Song 2–5.

A victory over Munraj Pal in the 2008 World Championship qualifiers set up a match with David Roe, which he lost 5–10.

Xiao won the Paul Hunter English Open in 2008.

In the 2009 China Open, he beat Michael Holt 5–3 in the wild-card round, progressing to the first round proper where he beat fellow Chinese player Ding Junhui 5–3. He gave three-time world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan a tough game in the next round as O'Sullivan began the match with two successive centuries before Xiao rallied to trail just 4–3, but lost the next frame to bow out of the tournament.[3]

On 10 July 2009, on the World Snooker website, Xiao was voted in the Top 5 players to watch out for in the 2009–10 season.

2011/2012 season

Xiao had a good season in the Players Tour Championship series of tournaments in the 2011–12 season. He reached the quarter-finals of Event 1 and Event 6 and went one better in Event 2, where he was knocked out in the last 4 against compatriot Ding Junhui. The results ensured he reached the 2012 Finals by finishing eighteenth in the Order of Merit.[4] He played in the Finals against the advice of doctors as he had broke a bone in his hand three weeks earlier whilst sleeping on it awkwardly, but despite this beat Dominic Dale 4–2 in the first round of the event.[5][6] Xiao then pulled off the result of his career to date by defeating recent UK champion, Judd Trump 4–2 to advance to his first ever ranking event quarter-final, where he was beaten by Andrew Higginson 1–4.[5][7]

Xiao could not qualify for any of the other ranking events during the season, coming closest in the UK Championship, where he lost to Tom Ford in the final qualifying round.[7] He finished the season ranked world number 41, meaning he had risen 23 places during the year.[8]

2012/2013 season

2013 German Masters

Xiao qualified for the Australian Goldfields Open and the German Masters during the 2012–13 season, losing in the first round in both to Barry Hawkins and Kurt Maflin respectively.[9] He took advantage of the new Asian Players Tour Championship events by taking part in all three of them. He had his best result in the second event by defeating the likes of Marco Fu and Barry Hawkins to reach the semi-finals, where he lost 2–4 to Stephen Lee.[9] His performances helped him to eighth on the Asian PTC Order of Merit, high enough to qualify for the Finals.[10] There, Xiao reached the quarter-finals for the second successive year with wins over Graeme Dott and Alfie Burden, before losing 1–4 to Neil Robertson.[11] Xiao's season came to an end when he lost 4–10 to Jimmy White in the third round of World Championship Qualifying, but he finished the year ranked world number 37, at the time his highest position.[12][13]

2013/2014 season

In his opening match of the season, Xiao defeated Andrew Norman 5–3 to qualify for the 2013 Wuxi Classic in China where he beat Peter Ebdon 5–3 in the first round and Li Hang 5–4 in the second.[14] He then faced John Higgins in the last 16 and was whitewashed 0–5.[15] Xiao could also not pick up a frame in the first round of the Australian Goldfields Open, as he lost 0–5 to Joe Perry.[14] He won three matches to qualify for the Shanghai Masters and once there defeated Yuan Siyun 5–0 in the wildcard round.[14] Xiao took advantage of a poor performance by Stephen Maguire in the first round to beat him 5–2 and then saw off Peter Lines 5–3.[16] He continued his run to make the semi-finals of a ranking event for the first time as he came back from 4–2 down to beat Mark Davis 5–4 citing afterwards his work with Terry Griffiths as being a key factor in his success.[17] In the semis he played Michael Holt who was also making his ranking event semi-final debut and from 3–3 Xiao made a break of 111, added the next frame and then closed the match out 6–3 with a 127 break.[18] He played Ding Junhui in a first all-Chinese ranking final and was beaten 10–6, but the runner-up's cheque of £35,500 is the highest of his career to date and he also broke into the world's top 32 for the first time.[19]

His second quarter-final appearance of the season came at the German Masters but he lost 5–2 to Ryan Day.[20] Xiao's rise up the world rankings meant he only needed to win one match to reach the World Championship and he did so in emphatic fashion by thrashing Li Yan 10–1.[21] In Xiao's debut in the event he rallied from 4–1 down against Ali Carter to end the first session 5–4 behind, but went on to lose 10–8.[22] Xiao's rise up the rankings continued as he ended the campaign as the world number 23, an increase of 14 spots from the start of the season.[23]

2014/2015 season

2015 German Masters

At the Australian Goldfields Open, Xiao recorded wins over Liam Highfield, Peter Ebdon and Matthew Stevens to reach the semi-finals of a ranking event for the second time, where Judd Trump defeated him 6–3.[24][25] He beat Eden Sharav and Noppon Saengkham at the International Championship, but lost 6–4 to Robert Milkins in the third round and was knocked out by the same scoreline in the second round of the UK Championship against Matthew Selt.[26] After edging Highfield 5–4 in the first round of the German Masters, Xiao was thrashed 5–0 by Neil Robertson.[27] Xiao won five matches at the Shoot-Out, the tournament where every match is decided by one ten-minute frame, to reach the final. Xiao lost the lead with just six seconds remaining against Michael White.[28] He progressed through to the final qualifying round of the World Championship and his match against Jimmy Robertson went into a deciding frame which Robertson won on the final pink.[29]

2015/2016 season

After having a high enough ranking to gain automatic entry into the Australian Goldfields Open (where he lost 5–3 to Ian Burns in the first round) Xiao's ranking steadily declined during the season as he could not get beyond the last 48 of any ranking event.[30] He dropped 30 places to end it 51st in the world.[31]

2016/2017 season

2016 Paul Hunter Classic

At the Riga Masters, Xiao beat Gareth Allen 4–0 and Jamie Jones and David Gilbert both 4–2 to reach his first ranking event quarter-final in two years. He lost 4–2 to Darren Morgan. Xiao defeated Michael Holt 4–1, Noppon Saengkham 4–0 and Neil Robertson 4–3 at the English Open, before being eliminated 4–3 by Chris Wakelin in the fourth round. During his second round match with Shaun Murphy at the Scottish Open, Xiao made a 132 break, the 100th century of his career and went on to win 4–1. He lost by a reversal of this scoreline to Mark Davis in the subsequent round.[32] This was the first year that the Shoot-Out, the tournament where every match is settled by a 10-minute frame played under a shot clock, had its status upgraded to a ranking event. In his quarter-final match with David Gilbert, Xiao ran out of time when potting a yellow but the foul was not picked up by the referee.[33] He won the match and reached the final of the event for the second time and lost by 67–19 points to Anthony McGill.[34] Three comfortable victories saw Xiao qualify for the World Championship and he beat Ryan Day 10–4 in round one, before losing 13–6 to Mark Selby.[35][36][37]

2017/2018 season

Xiao reached three quarter-finals, but had victories over John Higgins, Mark Allen and Mark Selby (twice). He qualified for the World Championship, but lost to Ding Junhui 10–3. He finished the season ranked 39.

2018/2019 season

Xiao missed two tournaments in August due to pneumonia. His best results came in the World Open (quarter final) and the World Grand Prix (semi-final). In the World Championship Qualifiers, he was unhappy when his opponent, Michael Judge played on for 20 minutes needing 8 snookers in the 8th frame. The session was duly suspended at 4-4, and Judge ultimately won 10–9. Xiao finished the season ranked 25.

Performance and rankings timeline

Tournaments 2004/
05
2006/
07
2007/
08
2008/
09
2009/
10
2010/
11
2011/
12
2012/
13
2013/
14
2014/
15
2015/
16
2016/
17
2017/
18
2018/
19
2019/
20
2020/
21
Rankings[38][nb 1] [nb 2] [nb 3] [nb 4] [nb 5] [nb 4] 74 64 41 37 23 21 51 39 25 25 31
Ranking tournaments
European Masters Tournament Not Held A LQ WD 2R 2R
English Open Tournament Not Held 4R 4R 1R 4R 1R
Championship League Not Held Non-Ranking Event 2R
Northern Ireland Open Tournament Not Held 1R 3R 3R 1R 2R
UK Championship A A LQ A LQ LQ LQ LQ 3R 2R 2R 2R 4R 3R 2R 4R
Scottish Open Tournament Not Held MR Tournament Not Held 3R QF 1R 3R 1R
World Grand Prix Tournament Not Held NR DNQ DNQ QF SF 2R 1R
German Masters Tournament Not Held LQ LQ 1R QF 2R LQ LQ QF 2R LQ LQ
Shoot-Out Tournament Not Held Non-Ranking Event F 2R 2R 3R 3R
Welsh Open A A LQ A LQ LQ LQ LQ 3R 2R 1R 1R 1R 1R 3R
Players Championship[nb 6] Tournament Not Held DNQ QF QF DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ
Gibraltar Open Tournament Not Held MR A A A SF
WST Pro Series Tournament Not Held
Tour Championship Tournament Not Held DNQ DNQ
World Championship A A LQ A LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R LQ LQ 2R 1R LQ A
Non-ranking tournaments
The Masters A A LQ A A A A A A A A A A A A A
Championship League Not Held A A A A A A A 2R A A A RR RR A
Former ranking tournaments
Northern Ireland Trophy NR A LQ A Tournament Not Held
Wuxi Classic[nb 7] Tournament Not Held Non-Ranking LQ 3R 1R Tournament Not Held
Australian Goldfields Open Tournament Not Held LQ 1R 1R SF 1R Tournament Not Held
Shanghai Masters Not Held 1R WR LQ LQ LQ LQ F LQ LQ LQ 1R Non-Rank. NH
Paul Hunter Classic[nb 8] Pro-am Event Minor-Ranking Event 2R A 2R NR NH
Indian Open Tournament Not Held LQ A NH 2R LQ WD Not Held
China Open 1R LQ 2R LQ LQ LQ LQ 2R LQ LQ LQ 1R 2R 1R Not Held
Riga Masters[nb 9] Tournament Not Held Minor-Rank. QF 1R 1R 2R NH
International Championship Tournament Not Held LQ 2R 3R 1R 1R 2R 2R 2R NH
China Championship Tournament Not Held NR 1R 2R 2R NH
World Open[nb 10] A A LQ A LQ LQ LQ LQ 1R Not Held 2R 2R QF 2R NH
Former non-ranking tournaments
Beijing International Challenge Tournament Not Held A RR Tournament Not Held
Wuxi Classic[nb 7] Tournament Not Held A A 1R A Ranking Event Tournament Not Held
World Grand Prix Tournament Not Held 1R Ranking Event
Shoot-Out Tournament Not Held A 1R 1R 2R F 2R Ranking Event
Haining Open Tournament Not Held MR 3R 2R A A NH
Shanghai Masters Not Held Ranking Event 1R 2R NH
Performance Table Legend
LQ lost in the qualifying draw #R lost in the early rounds of the tournament
(WR = Wildcard round, RR = Round robin)
QF lost in the quarter-finals
SF lost in the semi-finals F lost in the final W won the tournament
DNQ did not qualify for the tournament A did not participate in the tournament WD withdrew from the tournament
NH / Not Heldmeans an event was not held.
NR / Non-Ranking Eventmeans an event is/was no longer a ranking event.
R / Ranking Eventmeans an event is/was a ranking event.
MR / Minor-Ranking Eventmeans an event is/was a minor-ranking event.
  1. From the 2010/2011 season it shows the ranking at the beginning of the season.
  2. He was an amateur.
  3. He was an amateur.
  4. New players on the Main Tour don't have a ranking.
  5. He was an amateur.
  6. The event was called the Players Tour Championship Grand Finals (2010/2011–2012/2013)
  7. The event ran under the name Jiangsu Classic (2008/2009–2009/2010)
  8. The event was called the Fürth German Open (2006/2007)
  9. The event was called the Riga Open (2014/2015–2015/2016)
  10. The event was called the Grand Prix (2004/2005–2009/2010), the World Open (2010/2011) and the Haikou World Open (2011/2012–2013/2014)

Career finals

Ranking finals: 2 (2 runners-up)

Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final Score Ref.
Runner-up 1. 2013 Shanghai Masters Ding Junhui 6–10 [19]
Runner-up 2. 2017 Snooker Shoot Out Anthony McGill 0–1 [39]

Non-ranking finals: 1 (1 runner-up)

Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final Score Ref.
Runner-up 1. 2015 Snooker Shoot Out Michael White 0–1 [40]

Pro-am finals: 3 (3 titles)

Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final Score
Winner 1. 2008 Paul Hunter English Open Ben Woollaston 6–2
Winner 2. 2009 Asian Indoor Games Liang Wenbo 5–2
Winner 3. 2013 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games Amir Sarkhosh 5–4

Amateur finals: 4 (4 titles)

Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent in the final Score Ref.
Winner 1. 2007 Asian Under-21 Amateur Championship Chinnakrit Yoawansiri 6–2 [41]
Winner 2. 2008 PIOS – Event 2 Noppadol Sangnil 6–5
Winner 3. 2009 PIOS – Event 6 Jack Lisowski 6–0
Winner 4. 2011 China Snooker Tour Finals Chen Feilong 5–0 [42]

References

  1. "World Rankings After The German Masters 2015" (PDF). World Snooker. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 July 2015. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
  2. "World Rankings After The Kretaiv Dental Gdynia Open 2015 (ET6)" (PDF). World Snooker. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 July 2015. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  3. "O'Sullivan sets up Higgins clash in Snooker China Open". China.org.cn. Retrieved 11 July 2014.
  4. "PTC Order of Merit after PTC12" (PDF). worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 January 2013. Retrieved 29 December 2011.
  5. "Xiao Knocks Out Trump". AOL. 16 March 2012. Retrieved 30 April 2012.
  6. "Betfair Players Tour Championship Grand Finals (2012)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
  7. "Xiao Guodong 2011/2012". Snooker.org. Retrieved 30 April 2012.
  8. "Official World Ranking List for the 2012/2013 Season" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 August 2012. Retrieved 12 May 2012.
  9. "Xiao Guodong 2012/2013". Snooker.org. Retrieved 16 April 2013.
  10. "Asian Order of Merit after APTC3" (PDF). worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 December 2013. Retrieved 23 January 2013.
  11. "Dafabet Players Tour Championship Finals". Snooker.org. Retrieved 16 April 2013.
  12. "Betfair World Championship Qualifiers". Snooker.org. Retrieved 16 April 2013.
  13. "Official World Snooker Ranking List For The 2013/2014 Season" (PDF). World Snooker. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 June 2013. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  14. "Xiao Guodong 2013/2014". Snooker.org. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
  15. "Snooker – Robertson and Higgins roar into last eight at Wuxi Classic". Eurosport. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
  16. "Trump and Maguire slump to shock defeats". Eurosport. Retrieved 21 September 2013.
  17. "Holt And Xiao Make Semi Breakthough". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 22 September 2013. Retrieved 21 September 2013.
  18. "Xiao Powers into Final". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 24 September 2013. Retrieved 21 September 2013.
  19. "Ding Beats Xiao in All-Chinese Final". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 25 September 2013. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
  20. "Snooker – Trump charges into German Masters semis". Eurosport. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  21. "Snooker – Ebdon fails to reach World Championship". Eurosport. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  22. "World Snooker Championship: Ali Carter beats Xiao Guodong". BBC Sport. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  23. "World Snooker Rankings After the 2014 World Championship" (PDF). World Snooker. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 May 2014. Retrieved 9 May 2014.
  24. "Trump And Xiao into Semis". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 9 July 2014. Retrieved 9 July 2014.
  25. "Trump To Face Robertson in Bendigo Final". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 9 July 2014. Retrieved 9 July 2014.
  26. "Xiao Guodong 2014/2015". Snooker.org. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  27. "Neil Robertson eases into quarter-finals of German Masters". Cambridge News. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  28. "The White Stuff". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 13 April 2015. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  29. "Sweet 16 Through to Sheffield". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 22 April 2015. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  30. "Xiao Guodong 2015/2016". Snooker.org. Retrieved 23 June 2016.
  31. "World Rankings After 2016 World Championship". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 24 June 2016. Retrieved 23 June 2016.
  32. "Xiao Guodong 2016/2017". Snooker.org. Retrieved 23 June 2016.
  33. "Snooker: Gilbert vows to battle on despite Shoot-Out 'robbery' and Gibraltar travel troubles". Tamworth Herald. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  34. "Anthony McGill wins one-frame Shoot Out tournament". BBC Sport. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  35. "Yan Secures Crucible Debut". World Snooker. Retrieved 14 April 2017.
  36. "Joy for Xiao at the End of the Day". World Snooker. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  37. "Selby Too Strong for Xiao". World Snooker. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  38. "Ranking History". Snooker.org. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  39. "Coral Snooker Shoot-Out (2017)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  40. "Betway Snooker Shoot-Out (2015)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  41. https://web.archive.org/web/20120216160308/http://www.cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Amateur.html
  42. http://english.cntv.cn/program/sportsscene/20111230/111755.shtml
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