Asian Tour Event 3 – Zengzhou, China, 20-24 October 2013
All Chinese Grove players are involved. In round 1, they all beat their Chinese amateur opponents. Wenbo and Yu Delu got a bye. Round 2 was less successful: only Wenbo won his match whilst Cao Xin Long benefitted from Ding Junhui withdrawal. Cao lost in round 3. Wenbo beat Rouzi Maimaiti in last 16 and Liu Chuang in the quarters. He then beat Anthony McGill in the semis and whitewashed Lyu Haotian in the Final. First ranking event win! Well done!

Wenbo won his first professional event, a long overdue achievement given how well he can play.
Here was his reaction: (excerpt of WSA site http://www.worldsnooker.com/page/NewsArticles/0,,13165~2324947,00.html )

“Every match I played was a bit scary: comebacks and deciding frames,” said Liang, whose career highlights include reaching the final of the Shanghai Masters in 2009, the quarter-finals of the World Championship in 2007, and winning the World Cup alongside Ding in 2011. “It’s good to be in the final and win eventually. I’m certainly very happy to lift the trophy because I haven’t achieved much for a couple of years.

“I witnessed Ding’s great recent performances, which encouraged me a lot. So I was driven to win something. It will be great to have another good run in Chengdu but there’s a lot of tournaments and you have to adapt to it. I will get prepared for each tournament.

“The final today was nothing easy. We both made mistakes in the second frame and he had chances to level the match. After 2-0 I relaxed a bit which helped me to win it.”

Round 1

Li Yan 4-2 Zhang Yadong
17-56, 67-13, 35-60, 69-30, 73-45, 75-33

Li Hang 4-2 Zhang Zihao
98(84)-0, 52(52)-43, 73-33, 50-62, 2-65, 68-19

Cao Xin Long 4-3 Li Weixue
61-26, 58-63, 85-43, 40-72, 44-65, 63-17, 57-34

Chen Zhe 4-3 Wang Linhan
1-74(57), 18-56, 83-26, 61(50)-13, 21-68, 64-44, 71(71)-32

Zhang Anda 4-0 Wang Qianwei
90-38, 69-20, 54-23, 130(129)-0

Yu Delu and Wenbo got a bye to round 2.

Round 2

Cao Xin Long got a bye to round 3 as his opponent, Ding Junhui, withdrew.

Li Yan 1-4 Tian Pengfei
37-82(50), 12-79, 8-130(126), 80(77)-0, 5-70

Yu Delu 0-4 Zhao Xintong
50-61, 8-62, 26-68, 37-72

Liang Wenbo 4-3 Li Hang
7-50, 0-74(67), 63-62(62), 53(53)-56, 86(85)-0, 58-0, 95(95)-0
Looks like a good match this.

Zhou Yuelong 4-1 Chen Zhe
104(63)-24, 0-84, 90-37, 98(97)-7, 98(76)-0

Zhang Anda 2-4 Lyu Haotian
56(50)-59, 64-39, 0-69(69), 70(59)-71, 78(78)-1, 26-89(81)
Losing 2 frames despite making 50+ breaks in them must hurt. All credit to Lyu though to fight so well for them.

Round 3

Zhao Xintong 0-4 Liang Wenbo
7-84(74), 5-109(104), 35-79, 0-111(75)
Another heavy scoring session by Wenbo!

Round 4 – Last 16

Rouzi Maimaiti 3-4 Liang Wenbo
8-78(64), 72(72)-7, 22-69(58), 22-91(80), 67-40, 74(68)-1, 24-80
Breaks fest again. From both players…

Round 5 – Last 8

Liu Chuang 2-4 Liang Wenbo

Round 6 – Semi Finals

Anthony McGill 3-4 Liang Wenbo
82(82)-1, 84(74)-34, 48-87(87), 28-66, 29-100(76), 73(62)-0, 8-107(51,52)
7 frames, 7 50+ breaks …

Round 7 – Final

Lyu Haotian 0-4 Liang Wenbo
45-92(62), 56-69, 0-99(90), 2-71(61)