Cao Yupeng

Cao Yupeng (Chinese: 曹宇鹏; pinyin: Cáo Yǔpéng; born 27 October 1990) is a snooker player from the People's Republic of China. He won the 2011 Asian Under-21 Championship, thus qualifying for the professional main tour for the 2011–12 season.[1] In his first season on the circuit, he reached the last 16 of the World Championship.

Cao Yupeng
Paul Hunter Classic 2016
Born (1990-10-27) 27 October 1990
Guangzhou, China
Sport country China
Professional2011–2018
Highest ranking38 (April–May 2018)
Career winnings£297,024
Highest break147:
2017 Scottish Open
Century breaks49
Best ranking finishRunner-up (2017 Scottish Open, 2018 Gibraltar Open)
Tournament wins
Non-ranking1
Medal record
Men's snooker
Representing  China
Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games
2013 Incheon Individual

He is currently serving a ban for match-fixing from 25 May 2018 until 24 November 2020.[2] He received a ban from the sport on 1 December 2018, after pleading guilty to manipulating the outcome of matches.[3]

Career

Early career

Cao was selected as a wild card for the China Open twice, losing to Stuart Pettman in 2009 and Kurt Maflin in 2011. In April 2011, he beat Hossein Vafaei 7–3 in the final of the Asian Under-21 Championship,[4] and in doing so earned a place on the main professional snooker tour for the 2011–12 season.[5]

First season as a professional

Cao qualified for the 2012 World Snooker Championship in his debut season after defeating Kurt Maflin 10–2, Dave Harold 10–9 (coming back from 6–9 down), Nigel Bond 10–7 and Tom Ford 10–9 in the qualifying rounds. At the venue stage he put in an outstanding performance beating Mark Allen (world number 11) 10–6 to reach the last 16. After the match, Allen accused Cao of dishonesty following what he perceived as a foul shot which Cao did not own up to when he was leading 5–4.[6] Allen also said that "blatant cheating" might be "a bit of a trait for the Chinese players".[7] Television replays of the incident proved inconclusive with Cao stating that he did not remember the shot as he was focusing on the game.[6] Allen later apologised for his remarks, admitting that he had "overstepped the line".[7] Cao played Ryan Day in his next match and trailed 7–9 going into the final session, when his opponent won four straight frames in just over an hour to result in a 7–13 defeat.[8] His run in the tournament meant that he more than doubled his previous career earnings.[9] Nevertheless, Cao finished the season ranked world number 70, outside of the top 64 who retain their places on the snooker tour.[10] However, he was awarded the second nomination from the Chinese national governing body for a spot in the 2012–13 season.[11]

2012/2013 season

Cao qualified for the second ranking event of the season, the Australian Goldfields Open, by beating Paul Davison, Alfie Burden and Mike Dunn all by 5–2 scorelines.[12] He received a bye in the final qualifying round due to Anthony Hamilton's withdrawal,[13] and then came through a wild-card match against Johl Younger once in Australia to reach the last 32.[12] He faced Ali Carter and raced into a 4–0 lead, before withstanding a fightback, eventually going on to win 5–3.[14] Cao was beaten 5–4 by Martin Gould in the second round, without there ever being more than a frame between the players. He made a 143 break in the sixth frame, the highest of his career to date.[15] A month later, Cao won three qualifying matches to reach the International Championship, played in Chengdu, in his homeland.[12] He saw off Wang Yuchen in the wild-card round, before beating four-time world champion John Higgins in the first round, to set up a rematch with Mark Allen, following their clash at the end of last season.[16] It was Allen who triumphed this time, with a 6–2 win.[17]

He also came through three matches to qualify for the UK Championship for the first time.[12] He was beaten 5–1 by Mark Davis in the first round in York.[18] Cao could only win one more match during the rest of the season, culminating in the second round of World Championship Qualifying where he lost 10–7 to Zhang Anda, meaning he was unable to repeat last year's run to The Crucible.[19] He was ranked world number 66 in the end of season rankings.[20]

2013/2014 season

Cao reached the first quarter-final of his career at the 2013 Wuxi Classic, the opening ranking event of the 2013–14 season.[21] He qualified by defeating Paul Davison 5–1 and then saw off Michael White 5–3, world number eight Barry Hawkins 5–4 and Ben Woollaston 5–3.[22] He faced world number one, Neil Robertson and, although he led 4–3 and made five breaks above 50 in five separate frames during the match, he was edged out 5–4. This was the closest match Robertson had and he ultimately went on to win the title.[23] Cao won the first title of his career in winning the gold medal in the men's singles at the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games by beating Ding Junhui 4–2 in the final.[24] Cao qualified for four more ranking events during the season but lost in the first round in each one, coming closest to progressing at the International Championship when he came back from 5–2 down against Ding to level before losing the final frame.[22][25] All 128 players on the snooker tour earned automatic entry into the first round of the Welsh Open with Cao seeing off David Grace 4–2, but then lost another deciding frame in the next round this time against world number five, Hawkins.[26] Cao's world ranking went up 20 places during the season as finished it as the number 46.[27]

2014/2015 season

He came close to reaching the quarter-finals of the Wuxi Classic for the second season in a row, after he defeated Mark King 5–1 and Ricky Walden 5–3, stating that he done some body building, jogging and gym work to try to improve his game.[28] He lost 5–1 to Robin Hull in the last 16.[29] He was knocked out in the first round of the UK Championship 6–4 by Lyu Haotian and beat Craig Steadman 4–2 at the Welsh Open.[30] He won two frames to force a decider in the second round against Mark Allen which Cao lost.[31] Cao also qualified for the Indian Open and China Open, but was eliminated in the first round of both.[30] He dropped 14 places in the world rankings to 60th, but inside the top 64 who remain on tour.[32]

2015/2016 season

Cao qualified for the International Championship with a 6–2 win over Liam Highfield, but was beaten 6–2 by Tian Pengfei in the first round. He could only win a total of four matches all season to finish 72nd in the world rankings.[33] This meant that Cao had to enter Q School and he earned his place back on the tour at the first event with five match wins.[34]

2016/2017 season

Cao was on a losing streak of 11 matches until he played in the Shoot-Out where he knocked out three players, before being defeated by David Grace. Aside from that he only won two matches during the season.[35]

2017/2018 season

Cao notched his first-ever maximum break in tournament play in the second round of the Scottish Open. He became only the third player from mainland China to achieve the feat, following Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo.[36] Cao later reached the final of the Scottish Open, the first ranking final in his career. After leading 8–4, his opponent, Neil Robertson, won the final five frames in dramatic fashion to defeat Cao by 9–8.[37]

On 25 May 2018 he was suspended from the tour, alongside Yu Delu and David John, pending an investigation into suspected match fixing.[38]

Personal life

Cao is based in Gloucester, England, during the snooker season and prefers to be known as Eric when in the UK.[21]

Performance and rankings timeline
Tournament 2008/
09		 2010/
11		 2011/
12		 2012/
13		 2013/
14		 2014/
15		 2015/
16		 2016/
17		 2017/
18		 2018/
19
Ranking[39][nb 1] [nb 2] [nb 2] [nb 3] [nb 4] 66 46 60 [nb 5] 89 [nb 6]
Ranking tournaments
Riga Masters[nb 7] Tournament Not Held MR A 1R A
World Open[nb 8] A A LQ LQ 1R Not Held 1R 3R A
Paul Hunter Classic PA Minor-Ranking Event 2R A A
China Championship Tournament Not Held NR 1R A
European Masters Tournament Not Held LQ SF A
English Open Tournament Not Held 1R 2R A
International Championship Not Held 2R 1R LQ 1R LQ 1R A
Northern Ireland Open Tournament Not Held 1R 1R A
UK Championship A A LQ 1R 1R 1R 1R 1R 2R A
Scottish Open Not Held MR Not Held 1R F A
German Masters NH A LQ LQ 1R LQ LQ LQ LQ A
World Grand Prix Tournament Not Held NR DNQ DNQ 1R DNQ
Welsh Open A A LQ LQ 2R 2R 1R 1R 1R A
Shoot-Out NH Variant Format Event 4R QF A
Indian Open Tournament Not Held LQ 1R NH LQ 1R A
Players Championship[nb 9] NH A DNQ 1R DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ
Gibraltar Open Tournament Not Held MR A F A
Tour Championship Tournament Not Held DNQ
China Open WR WR LQ LQ LQ 1R LQ LQ 3R A
World Championship A A 2R LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ LQ A
Non-ranking tournaments
Haining Open Tournament Not Held MR 1R 2R A
Variant format tournaments
Six-red World Championship[nb 10] A A NH A RR A A A A A
Former ranking tournaments
Wuxi Classic[nb 11] Non-Ranking Event LQ QF 3R Tournament Not Held
Australian Goldfields Open Not Held LQ 2R LQ LQ A Not Held
Shanghai Masters A A LQ LQ 1R LQ LQ LQ 2R NR
Former non-ranking tournaments
Hainan Classic NH RR Tournament Not Held
Wuxi Classic[nb 11] A A 1R Ranking Event Tournament Not Held
Shoot-Out NH A A 1R 2R A 1R Ranking Event
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.
PA / Pro-am Eventmeans an event is/was a pro-am event.
VF / Variant Format Eventmeans an event is/was a variant format event.
  1. From the 2010/2011 season it shows the ranking at the beginning of the season.
  2. He was an amateur.
  3. New players on the Main Tour don't have a ranking.
  4. Players qualified through Chinese nomination started the season without ranking points.
  5. Players qualified through the Q School started the season without ranking points.
  6. He is currently serving a ban for match-fixing from 25 May 2018 until 24 November 2020.
  7. The event was called the Riga Open (2014/2015–2015/2016)
  8. The event was called the Grand Prix (2009/2010), the World Open (2010/2011) and the Haikou World Open (2011/2012–2013/2014)
  9. The event was called the Players Tour Championship Grand Finals (2010/2011–2012/2013) and the Players Championship Grand Final (2013/2014–2015/2016)
  10. The event was called the Six-red Snooker International (2008/2009)
  11. The event ran under the name Jiangsu Classic (2008/2009–2009/2010)

Career finals

Ranking tournament finals: 2 (2 runner-ups)
Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent Score
Runner-up 1. 2017 Scottish Open Neil Robertson 8–9
Runner-up 2. 2018 Gibraltar Open Ryan Day 0–4

Non-ranking tournament finals: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)
Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent Score
Winner 1. 2011 HK Spring Trophy Liang Wenbo 6–5[40]
Runner-up 1. 2015 General Cup Qualifying Event Zhang Anda 4–5

Pro-am tournament finals: 2 (2 titles)
Outcome No. Year Championship Opponent Score
Winner 1. 2013 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games Ding Junhui 4–2
Winner 2. 2017 Baoying Open Chang Bingyu 5–4[41]
gollark: ./warp choruscity
gollark: My town has THREE residents!
gollark: I could add that as a potatOS feature, perhaps, since it runs node.lua backgrounded.
gollark: Good, good.
gollark: I can technically ban people from useless cubes and stuff.

References
  1. "Asian Championship 2011 12th Under-21 Snooker". Cue Sports India. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
  2. http://www.worldsnooker.com/wpbsa-statement-9/
  3. "WPBSA Statement: Cao Yupeng and Yu Delu". Word Snooker. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
  4. "Asian Championship 2011". Cue Sports India. Retrieved 10 July 2012.
  5. "2011/12 Tour Players". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 12 June 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2012.
  6. "World Snooker Championship 2012: Mark Allen accuses Cao Yupeng of dishonesty". BBC Sport. 23 April 2012. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
  7. "Mark Allen issues apology after criticising Chinese players". The Guardian. 25 April 2012. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
  8. "Day cruises to victory over Cao". Eurosport. 28 April 2012. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
  9. "Allen dumped out in first round after shock defeat to rising star Cao". Daily Mail. 22 April 2012. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
  10. "Official World Ranking List for the 2012/2013 Season" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 June 2013. Retrieved 10 May 2012.
  11. "Tour Players 2012/2013". worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Archived from the original on 12 May 2014. Retrieved 2 June 2012.
  12. "Cao Yupeng 2012/2013". Snooker Database. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
  13. "Triple-Ton Fu Is Bendigo Bound". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 22 June 2012. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
  14. "Murphy Breaks Ranking Drought". World Snooker. Retrieved 10 July 2012.
  15. "Local Hero Robertson Beaten By Davis". World Snooker. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
  16. "John Higgins loses to Cao Yupeng in Chengdu first round". BBC Sport. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  17. "Mark Allen through to last eight in China ranking event". BBC Sport. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  18. "UK Championship: Cao Yupeng exits York in first round against Mark Davis". Sky Sports. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  19. "Betfair World Championship Qualifiers". Snooker.org. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  20. "Official World Snooker Ranking List For The 2013/2014 Season" (PDF). World Snooker. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 June 2013. Retrieved 24 May 2013.
  21. "Cao Makes Breakthrough In Wuxi". World Snooker. Retrieved 20 June 2013.
  22. "Cao Yupeng 2013/2014". Snooker.org. Retrieved 20 June 2013.
  23. "Robertson To Meet Milkins In Semis". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 24 June 2013. Retrieved 21 June 2013.
  24. "Snooker — Yupeng wins singles gold at Asian Indoor Games". Eurosport. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  25. "Ding survives scare as big names fall in China". Eurosport. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  26. "O'Sullivan and Robertson cruise in Newport". ESPN (UK). Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  27. "World Snooker Rankings After the 2014 World Championship" (PDF). World Snooker. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 May 2014. Retrieved 9 May 2014.
  28. "Selby Suffers Liang Defeat". World Snooker. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  29. "Hull of a Performance". World Snooker. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  30. "Cao Yupeng 2014/2015". Snooker.org. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  31. "Welsh Open – Mark Allen into round three but Ken Doherty and David Morris make their exits". RTÉ Sport. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  32. "World Rankings After 2015 World Championship". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 7 May 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  33. "World Rankings After 2016 World Championship". World Snooker. Archived from the original on 24 June 2016. Retrieved 23 June 2016.
  34. "Cao Yupeng 2015/2016". Snooker.org. Retrieved 23 June 2016.
  35. "Cao Yupeng 2016/2017". Snooker.org. Retrieved 10 April 2017.
  36. https://www.rte.ie/sport/snooker/2017/1212/926817-cao-about-that-yupeng-hits-147-at-scottish-open/
  37. https://www.bbc.com/sport/snooker/42387147
  38. http://www.worldsnooker.com/wpbsa-statement-cao-yupeng-and-yu-delu/
  39. "Ranking History". Snooker.org. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  40. http://sports.sina.com.cn/o/p/2011-09-15/21135747491.shtml
  41. "Цао Юпен победитель Baoying International Open". top-snooker.com. 10 September 2017. Retrieved 25 December 2017.
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