Liang Wenbo

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This is a Chinese name; the family name is Liang.

Liang Wenbo

Born	March 25, 1987 (1987-03-25) (age 21), Heilongjiang, China
Nationality	Chinese
Nickname(s)	The Fearless
Professional	2004 - present
Highest ranking	40
2008/09 ranking	40
Career winnings	GB£32,080
Highest break	134 - 2005 UK Championship Qualifying
Best ranking finish	Quarter final - 2008 World Snooker Championship

Medal record
Men's Snooker
Asian Games
Silver	2006 Doha	Individual
Gold	2006 Doha	Team

Liang Wenbo (Chinese: 梁文博, pinyin: Liáng Wénbó ; born 25 March 1987, Heilongjiang, China) is a professional snooker player. He is left-handed and currently ranked as China's number 2 snooker player, after Ding Junhui. Liang is based at the World Snooker Academy in Sheffield, England.

[edit] Career

As an amateur, Liang's major feats were as follows:

2003 IBSF World Snooker Championship, men's division, quarter-finalist
2004 IBSF World Snooker Championship, under-21 division, semi-finalist
2005 Pontins International Open Series, under-21 division, no. 4 runner-up

Liang built on the positive start to his snooker career, winning an individual silver medal and a team gold medal at the 2006 Asian Games.

For the 2007-2008 season, he is provisionally ranked 53rd in the world.

[edit] 2008 World Championships

At the 2008 World Championships, Liang was the third Chinese player to qualify for the event, with victories over Ben Woollaston, Rod Lawler, David Gilbert and Ian McCulloch.

At the championship itself, he drew a first round meet with Ken Doherty, of whom he beat by 10 frames to 5. Before the start of this match, Wenbo accidentally entered the arena with the match officials and had to scurry back. He subsequently got a warm ovation when he entered the arena for a second time after being introduced by MC Rob Walker. For every session thereafter, Walker introduced him as "Should he stay or should he go... Liang Wenbo", despite the rhyme occuring because of a mispronunciation of his name ("bo" is pronounced "booa" in Chinese).

Liang faced Ireland's Joe Swail in the last 16 of the tournament. In a humorous incident, Liang fluked a red after scattering the balls, but failed to notice and went back to his seat. To laughter, Swail pointed out his mistake and the referee called Liang back to the table. In the 23rd frame, Liang, with a 12-10 lead, prematurely celebrated winning after potting match ball, only to go on to lose the frame due to a snooker. Swail came back to level the match at 12-12. In the final frame, Liang made breaks of 34 and 30 early on. He missed the final yellow but snookered Swail, leaving the white in the jaws of the pocket. Liang played a safety and Swail snookered him behind the blue, but Liang failed to hit the ball and Swail had the white replaced. Liang then hit the yellow directly.

This incident proved controversial as the referee replaced the white in the wrong position, giving Liang a better sight of the yellow. At the time, Swail nodded his assent to the referee, but in a post-match interview, complained and accused Liang of unprofessional behaviour for not pointing out the referee's error. Commentators countered that Swail should have queried the placement of the ball before Liang took his shot, and given the tension of the situation Liang could be forgiven for not thinking clearly. Liang went on to win the frame 74-34, and thus, the match.

Fresh from "The Rocket's" 147 break against Mark Williams, Liang faced Ronnie O'Sullivan. Liang took the first two frames with a break of 80 in the first. O'Sullivan levelled the match 4-4 by the end of the first session. In the second session O'Sullivan eased ahead, and went on to win 13-7.