Lü Haotian

Lü Haotian
birthday	29th November 1997 (age 22)
place of birth	Tongzhou , Beijing
nationality	People's Republic of China
professional	2013–2015, since 2017
Prize money	£ 279,239 (As of August 31, 2020)
Highest break	141 ( Welsh Open 2020 )
Century Breaks	41 (as of August 31, 2020)
Main tour successes
World championships	-
Ranking tournament victories	-
Minor tournament victories	-
World rankings
Highest WRL place	24 ( September – October 2019 )
Current WRL location	43 (as of August 17, 2020)

Lü Haotian (international spelling: Lyu Haotian or Lu Haotian ; Chinese  吕 昊天 , Pinyin Lǚ Hàotiān ; born November 29, 1997 in Tongzhou , Beijing ) is a Chinese snooker player from Beijing.

Career

youth

Lü is considered to be one of the most promising snooker talents in China. At the age of 10 he came to the snooker school of Pang Weiguo , who had already participated in Main Tour tournaments. He first attracted attention in 2009 when he won the national youth cup of Chong'an with a 4-2 win against 18-year-old Lu Chenwei one day before his 12th birthday as the youngest player to date . In the 2011/12 season he first took part as a wildcard player in Main Tour tournaments . Although he lost his opening games at the Haikou World Open 2012 (4-5 against Tom Ford ) and the China Open 2012 (2-5 against ex-world champion Peter Ebdon ), he won the IBSF in July 2012 at the age of 14 U21 World Snooker Championship thanks to a 9: 6 win over his compatriot Zhu Yinghui. He was the youngest winner in the history of the tournament. His victory also gave him a Main Tour ticket for the 2013/14 and 2014/15 snooker seasons .

First professional season

Until then, he was used again as a local wildcard player at Chinese Main Tour tournaments in the 2012/13 season and won his opening game against Marco Fu 5: 4 at the Shanghai Masters 2012 . At the International Championship 2012 , he even made it into the quarter-finals by beating Michael White in the wildcard round and Dominic Dale in the second round. However, he benefited in the first main round from the absence of his opponent Ronnie O'Sullivan and the resulting bye. In the quarterfinals he was finally defeated by the eventual finalist Neil Robertson 2-6 . He also reached the main tournament at the World Open and the China Open (victory over Simon Bedford or bye), but then dropped out.

Lü, who had enrolled at the Snooker Academy in Sheffield , had his first success as a professional in June 2013. At the Wuxi Classic he qualified for a main tournament for the first time and came under the last 32. After that, however, there were many defeats at the beginning, especially at the Minor Ranking Tournaments of the Players Tour Championship (PTC). At the Bluebell Wood Open 2013 he lost to Ronnie O'Sullivan in the decider. Only once did he achieve an even greater success. At the Zhengzhou Open , he defeated several more experienced compatriots and the Scots Graeme Dott and made it to the final. Liang Wenbo finally prevented his tournament victory. But since it was a small tournament and otherwise he only got two wins in the season, he was reluctant to climb into the top 100 in the world rankings . At the beginning of the second year he reached round 3 at the Australian Open and improved up to 72nd place. With opening wins at the Shanghai Masters, the UK Championship and the Indian Open, he was able to hold on, but not improve. At the final World Cup , he had the last chance to make a leap forward. Against Andrew Pagett , the first round match was open to 8: 8, but then the Welshman got the two decisive frames. Lü missed a placement among the top 64 and lost his professional status again.

Amateur years

The following year he had only one opportunity to participate in an amateur PTC tournament in Asia. At the Haining Open 2015 he defeated two professional players and made it to the round of 16. Only at the end of the season did he try to return to the Main Tour, but his attempts in the two Q School tournaments ended in the third and second round. A second amateur year followed before he had another opportunity to qualify. Even before the Q School, the Asian Cup took place in April 2017 . Lü Haotian reached the final and defeated the experienced ex-professional Pankaj Advani from India with 6: 3. This gave him the right to start the Main Tour for two years and made his second attempt in professional snooker at the age of 19.

Season 2017/18

The 2017/18 season began with three qualifying defeats. The first success came at the European Masters , where he made it into the last 32 with victories over Robert Milkins and Ian Preece and there was only just 3: 4 defeated by the reigning world champion Mark Selby in a high-class match.

Season 2018/19

In the 2018/19 season he reached the finals of a world ranking tournament for the first time at the Indian Open . However, he was defeated by Matthew Selt 3: 5.

successes

• IBSF U21 World Snooker Championship 2012
• Asian Cup 2017

Web links

Commons : Lu Haotian  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Player profile at World Snooker (English)
• Lyu Haotian in the snooker Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Profile of Lyu Haotian on CueTracker (as of February 16, 2020)
2. ^ Lü Haotian - Players . Snooker.org. Retrieved December 29, 2014.
3. ↑ 吕 昊天 再 破 奥沙利文 纪录 成 排名 赛 最 年轻 8 强 选手 , Sina (blog), November 2, 2012
4. ↑ 吕 昊天 再 破 奥沙利文 纪录 成 排名 赛 最 年轻 8 强 选手 ( Memento of the original dated November 12, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Han Yuetian, qqtxb.com, August 26, 2015 
5. ↑ 11 岁 神童 将 被 载入 史册 吕 昊天 完胜 对手 中青 赛 称王 , my147, November 28, 2009
6. ↑ 14 Years Old Lv Hao Tian Wins the World U-21, IBSF, July 22, 2012 ( Memento of November 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
7. ↑ Wonderkid Lu reaches quarterfinals ( memento of the original from October 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. szdaily.sznews.com 
8. ↑ International Championship - Murphy ruins the party ( memento of the original from October 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. de.eurosport.yahoo.com 
9. ↑ Young Lyu Haotian reaches first final ( memento of the original from November 12, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Star Snooker Academy, October 2015 
10. ↑ Best match so far in Lommel: Mark Selby wrestles Lu Haotian , Rolf Kalb , Eurosport, October 5, 2017

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Lü is the family name here, Haotian is the first name.