# 2017 World Cup (snooker)

The 2017 Little Swan World Cup was a professional non-ranking team snooker tournament that took place from 3 to 9 July 2017 at the Wuxi City Sports Park Stadium in Wuxi, China. It was the 15th edition of the event, and was televised live by Eurosport Player and repeated on Eurosport 1.
The China A pair of Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo won the event, beating the English pair of Judd Trump and Barry Hawkins 4–3 in the final, winning the last three frames. Ding Junhui made a break of 59 in the deciding frame against Judd Trump.

## Teams and players

| Seed | Nation | Player 1 | Player 2 |
| 1 | China B | Zhou Yuelong | Yan Bingtao |
| 2 | Scotland | John Higgins | Anthony McGill |
| 3 | England | Judd Trump | Barry Hawkins |
| 4 | China A | Ding Junhui | Liang Wenbo |
| 5 | Hong Kong | Marco Fu | Au Chi-wai |
| 6 | Australia | Neil Robertson | Kurt Dunham |
| 7 | Northern Ireland | Mark Allen | Joe Swail |
| 8 | Wales | Mark Williams | Ryan Day |
| | Ireland | Fergal O'Brien | Ken Doherty |
| | Norway | Kurt Maflin | Christopher Watts |
| | Thailand | Thepchaiya Un-Nooh | Noppon Saengkham |
| | Belgium | Luca Brecel | Jeff Jacobs |
| | India | Aditya Mehta | Brijesh Damani |
| | Brazil | Igor Figueiredo | Itaro Santos |
| | Malta | Alex Borg | Duncan Bezzina |
| | Iran | Hossein Vafaei | Soheil Vahedi |
| | Malaysia | Thor Chuan Leong | Moh Keen Hoo |
| | Germany | Lukas Kleckers | Simon Lichtenberg |
| | Pakistan | Hamza Akbar | Shahram Changezi |
| | Cyprus | Michael Georgiou | Antonis Poullos |
| | Switzerland | Alexander Ursenbacher | Darren Paris |
| | Egypt | Hatem Yassen | Basem Eltahhan |
| | Israel | Eden Sharav | Shachar Ruberg |
| | Finland | Robin Hull | Heikki Niva |

## Prize fund

* Winner: $200,000
* Runner-Up: $100,000
* Semi-final: $60,000
* Quarter-final: $40,000
* Third in group: $22,500
* Fourth in group: $15,000
* Fifth in group: $10,000
* Sixth in group: $7,500
* Total: $800,000

## Format

The 2017 World Cup used the same format as that used in 2015. There were 24 national teams, with two players competing for each side, and the initial round divided the entrants into four groups of six. During the Group Stage, every national team played a best-of-five frame match against each of the other sides in their pool. All matches consisted of five frames, two singles, a doubles frame, and two reverse singles. The top two teams from each group advanced to the Knockout Stages, the order being determined by total frames won. If there is a tie in either of the first two places the following rules determine the positions. If two teams are equal, the winner of the match between the two teams will be ranked higher. If three or more teams are tied, a sudden-death blue ball shoot-out will be played. Teams tied for positions 3 to 6 would remain tied and share the prize money for those positions.
During the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and championship final, the eight qualifying team were paired off in a head-to-head knockout. The format for these matches was a best-of-seven frame competition with the contest coming to an end as soon as one team had won four frames. These encounters were scheduled as two singles, a doubles frame, two reverse singles, another doubles frame, and a winner-take-all singles if necessary.

## Group stage
### Group A

| Date | Team 1 | Score | Team 2 | Team 1 | Score | Team 2 | Team 1 | Score | Team 2 |
| 3 July 2017 | China B | 4–1 | Finland | Wales | 5–0 | Norway | Malaysia | 0–5 | Brazil |
| 4 July 2017 | China B | 3–2 | Norway | Wales | 3–2 | Malaysia | Finland | 2–3 | Brazil |
| 5 July 2017 | China B | 4–1 | Brazil | Wales | 5–0 | Finland | Norway | 2–3 | Malaysia |
| 6 July 2017 | China B | 1–4 | Wales | Norway | 2–3 | Brazil | Finland | 2–3 | Malaysia |
| 7 July 2017 | China B | 3–2 | Malaysia | Wales | 2–3 | Brazil | Norway | 2–3 | Finland |
| Place | Seed | Team | Games | Frames | Frames won | Frames lost | Difference | Points |
| 1 | 8 | Wales | 5 | 25 | 19 | 6 | 13 | 19 |
| 2 | 1 | China B | 5 | 25 | 15 | 10 | 5 | 15 |
| 3 | | Brazil | 5 | 25 | 15 | 10 | 5 | 15 |
| 4 | | Malaysia | 5 | 25 | 10 | 15 | −5 | 10 |
| 5 | | Finland | 5 | 25 | 8 | 17 | −9 | 8 |
| 6 | | Norway | 5 | 25 | 8 | 17 | −9 | 8 |
China B finished above Brazil because they won the match between the two teams.

### Group B

| Date | Team 1 | Score | Team 2 | Team 1 | Score | Team 2 | Team 1 | Score | Team 2 |
| 3 July 2017 | China A | 5–0 | Ireland | Hong Kong | 4–1 | Germany | Belgium | 4–1 | Egypt |
| 4 July 2017 | China A | 3–2 | Germany | Hong Kong | 1–4 | Belgium | Ireland | 3–2 | Egypt |
| 5 July 2017 | China A | 4–1 | Egypt | Hong Kong | 4–1 | Ireland | Germany | 1–4 | Belgium |
| 6 July 2017 | China A | 2–3 | Belgium | Hong Kong | 4–1 | Egypt | Germany | 2–3 | Ireland |
| 7 July 2017 | China A | 3–2 | Hong Kong | Germany | 4–1 | Egypt | Ireland | 3–2 | Belgium |
| Place | Seed | Team | Games | Frames | Frames won | Frames lost | Difference | Points |
| 1 | | Belgium | 5 | 25 | 17 | 8 | 9 | 17 |
| 2 | 4 | China A | 5 | 25 | 17 | 8 | 9 | 17 |
| 3 | 5 | Hong Kong | 5 | 25 | 15 | 10 | 5 | 15 |
| 4 | | Ireland | 5 | 25 | 10 | 15 | −5 | 10 |
| 5 | | Germany | 5 | 25 | 10 | 15 | −5 | 10 |
| 6 | | Egypt | 5 | 25 | 6 | 19 | −13 | 6 |
Belgium finished above China A because they won the match between the two teams.

### Group C

| Date | Team 1 | Score | Team 2 | Team 1 | Score | Team 2 | Team 1 | Score | Team 2 |
| 3 July 2017 | England | 5–0 | Switzerland | Australia | 2–3 | Malta | Pakistan | 2–3 | Iran |
| 4 July 2017 | England | 4–1 | Malta | Australia | 4–1 | Pakistan | Switzerland | 2–3 | Iran |
| 5 July 2017 | England | 4–1 | Iran | Australia | 4–1 | Switzerland | Malta | 3–2 | Pakistan |
| 6 July 2017 | England | 5–0 | Pakistan | Australia | 1–4 | Iran | Malta | 1–4 | Switzerland |
| 7 July 2017 | England | 4–1 | Australia | Malta | 0–5 | Iran | Switzerland | 2–3 | Pakistan |
| Place | Seed | Team | Games | Frames | Frames won | Frames lost | Difference | Points |
| 1 | 3 | England | 5 | 25 | 22 | 3 | 19 | 22 |
| 2 | | Iran | 5 | 25 | 16 | 9 | 7 | 16 |
| 3 | 6 | Australia | 5 | 25 | 12 | 13 | −1 | 12 |
| 4 | | Switzerland | 5 | 25 | 9 | 16 | −7 | 9 |
| 5 | | Malta | 5 | 25 | 8 | 17 | −9 | 8 |
| 6 | | Pakistan | 5 | 25 | 8 | 17 | −9 | 8 |

### Group D

| Date | Team 1 | Score | Team 2 | Team 1 | Score | Team 2 | Team 1 | Score | Team 2 |
| 3 July 2017 | Scotland | 2–3 | Thailand | Northern Ireland | 4–1 | Cyprus | India | 2–3 | Israel |
| 4 July 2017 | Scotland | 3–2 | Cyprus | Northern Ireland | 3–2 | India | Thailand | 3–2 | Israel |
| 5 July 2017 | Scotland | 4–1 | Israel | Northern Ireland | 3–2 | Thailand | Cyprus | 1–4 | India |
| 6 July 2017 | Scotland | 2–3 | Northern Ireland | Thailand | 5–0 | India | Cyprus | 0–5 | Israel |
| 7 July 2017 | Scotland | 3–2 | India | Northern Ireland | 3–2 | Israel | Cyprus | 0–5 | Thailand |
| Place | Seed | Team | Games | Frames | Frames won | Frames lost | Difference | Points |
| 1 | | Thailand | 5 | 25 | 18 | 7 | 11 | 18 |
| 2 | 7 | Northern Ireland | 5 | 25 | 16 | 9 | 7 | 16 |
| 3 | 2 | Scotland | 5 | 25 | 14 | 11 | 3 | 14 |
| 4 | | Israel | 5 | 25 | 13 | 12 | 1 | 13 |
| 5 | | India | 5 | 25 | 10 | 15 | −5 | 10 |
| 6 | | Cyprus | 5 | 25 | 4 | 21 | −17 | 4 |

## Knock-out stage

| Quarter-finals Best of 7 frames (8 July 2017) | Quarter-finals Best of 7 frames (8 July 2017) | Quarter-finals Best of 7 frames (8 July 2017) | Semi-finals Best of 7 frames (9 July 2017) | Semi-finals Best of 7 frames (9 July 2017) | Semi-finals Best of 7 frames (9 July 2017) | Final Best of 7 frames (9 July 2017) | Final Best of 7 frames (9 July 2017) | Final Best of 7 frames (9 July 2017) |
| A1 | Wales | 1 | | | | | | |
| B2 | China A | 4 | | | | | | |
| B2 | China A | 4 | B2 | China A | 4 | | | |
| | | | D1 | Thailand | 2 | | | |
| D1 | Thailand | 4 | D1 | Thailand | 2 | | | |
| C2 | Iran | 1 | | | | | | |
| C2 | Iran | 1 | | | | B2 | China A | 4 |
| | | | | | | C1 | England | 3 |
| B1 | Belgium | 3 | | | | | | | C1 | England | 3 |
| A2 | China B | 4 | | | | | | |
| A2 | China B | 4 | A2 | China B | 3 | | | |
| | | | C1 | England | 4 | | | |
| C1 | England | 4 | C1 | England | 4 | | | |
| D2 | Northern Ireland | 3 | | | | | | |

### Final

Final: Best of 7 frames. Referee: Maike Kesseler. Wuxi City Sports Park Stadium, Wuxi, China, 9 July 2017. :
| Ding Junhui Liang Wenbo China A | 4–3 | Judd Trump Barry Hawkins England |
| 47–70, 76–21 (68), 22–67 (57), 0–72, 70–18 (69), 60–37, 88–4 (59) |||
| 69 | Highest break | 57 |
| 0 | Century breaks | 0 |
| 3 | 50+ breaks | 1 |

## Century breaks

There were 14 century breaks made in the tournament.
* Wales – 140 Ryan Day, 109 Mark Williams
* Thailand – 133, 116 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, 101 Noppon Saengkham
* Northern Ireland – 133, 104 Mark Allen
* Scotland – 130 John Higgins
* Belgium – 121 Luca Brecel
* England – 112 Judd Trump
* China B – 112 Zhou Yuelong
* Australia – 105 Neil Robertson
* Malta – 105 Duncan Bezzina
* Hong Kong – 103 Marco Fu