Marco Fu Ka-chun (Chinese: 傅家俊; pinyin: Fù Jiājùn; Yale: Fu6 Ka1 Chun3; born 8 January 1978 in Hong Kong), commonly known as Marco Fu, is a professional snooker player from Hong Kong. He is best known for winning the 2007 Grand Prix, beating Ronnie O'Sullivan in the final, and for being runner-up in the 2008 UK Championship and the 2011 Masters. He also reached the semi-finals of the 2006 World Championship. He currently resides in Happy Valley.

Fu started playing snooker at the age of nine, but did not start playing regularly until he was 15. Fu was born in Hong Kong and emigrated to Vancouver, Canada with his parents at the age of 12. After his high school graduation at age 18, Hong Kong Billiard Sports Control Council Co. Ltd President Joseph Lo invited him to return to Hong Kong to begin his career as a professional snooker player. Before turning professional, Fu won the World Amateur and World Under-21 Championships, both in 1997.

In 1998, the year he turned professional, Fu reached the final of the Grand Prix, beating Ronnie O'Sullivan (5–2) and then Peter Ebdon (5–3) in the process. An in-form Stephen Lee proved too strong for Fu in the final, defeating him 9–2, but Fu nevertheless rose dramatically through the rankings, reaching number 15 in the world for the 2000/01 season. When he first turned professional, he was ranked 377th in the world. During the rest of the 1998/99 season, Fu qualifed for four more ranking tournaments, including the World Championship, winning four qualifying matches before losing to James Wattana 8–10 in the first round of the main draw.

Judd Trump (born 21 August 1989) is an English professional snooker player from Bristol. He enjoyed considerable success in youth tournaments before turning professional in 2005. On 3 April 2011, Trump won his first ranking title, beating Mark Selby 10–8 in the final of the China Open. Following this success in China, he reached the final of the 2011 World Snooker Championship where he was defeated by John Higgins. He then went on to win the 2011 UK Championship where he defeated Mark Allen 10–8 in the final.

Trump was English Under-13 and Under-15 champion, and reached the World Under-21 Championship semi-finals at the age of 14. At the same age, he became the youngest player ever to make a competitive 147, beating Jamie Jones's record.

In the 2005/06 season he joined the professional tour, and at the Welsh Open became the youngest player ever to qualify for the final stages of a ranking tournament. He reached the same last-48 stage for the China Open, losing 4–5 to Michael Holt, although this was designated the final qualifying round and was actually played in Prestatyn, Wales.

Ding Junhui (Chinese: 丁俊晖; pinyin: Dīng Jùnhuī; born 1 April 1987 in Yixing, Wuxi, Jiangsu) is a Chinese professional snooker player. Ding Junhui is China's most successful player ever, having become only the second teenager, after John Higgins, to win three ranking titles. As a prolific breakbuilder Ding has compiled more than 200 century breaks during his career.

In December 2006, he enrolled at Shanghai Jiao Tong University to study Business Administration and Management. He is a resident of England during the snooker season. He is good friends with fellow countryman Liang Wenbo and they are training partners in Sheffield World Snooker Academy.

Ding started playing snooker at the age of nine, when his father took him to the Chinese national team training centre near Shanghai. His father persuaded his mother to sell their house in order for Ding to continue playing snooker as a career.

Ding shot to international prominence in 2002, when he won the Asian Under-21 Championship, the Asian Championship and the IBSF World Under-21 Championship (became the youngest ever winner of the World Under-21 Championship at the age of fifteen). He was unable to progress much in 2003, as both the Asian Championship and Under-21 Championship had to be cancelled because of the SARS virus crisis, but he was a semi-finalist in the IBSF World Under-21 championship, and was awarded a Main Tour concession by the WPBSA, which enabled him to turn professional in September 2003. In 2003, he became the number one ranked player in China.

Cao Yupeng (Chinese: 曹宇鹏; pinyin: Cáo Yǔpéng; born October 27, 1990 in Guangzhou) is a professional 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 2011/2012 season.

Cao was selected as a wild-card for the China Open twice, losing to Stuart Pettman in 2009 and Kurt Maflin in 2011.

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. Allen also said that "blatant cheating" might be "a bit of a trait for the Chinese players". Television replays of the incident proved inconclusive with Cao stating that he did not remember the shot as he was focusing on the game. Allen later apologised for his remarks, admitting that he had "overstepped the line". 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. His run in the tournament meant that he more than doubled his previous career earnings. Nevertheless Cao finished the season ranked world number 70, outside of the top 64 who retain their places on the snooker tour. However, he was awarded the second nomination from the Chinese national governing body for a spot on the 2012/2013 season.

Stuart Bingham (born 21 May 1976, in Basildon, Essex) is an English professional snooker player. He was the 1996 English Amateur and World Amateur champion, but for many years was something of a journeyman professional. He had a run of strong results in late 2005, to earn him a top 32 world rankings place he has yet to lose. He was the 26th player to compile 100 competitive centuries and the 8th to achieve a maximum break twice in professional matches. His biggest achievement to date was winning the 2011 Australian Goldfields Open.

In 1999, Bingham reached the quarter-final stage of the Welsh Open, beating the world champion John Higgins along the way, and later in the season caused a major shock by defeating Stephen Hendry 10–7 in the first round of the 2000 World Championship, ranked a lowly 97 in the world. He also qualified for the tournament in 2002 by beating Nigel Bond. In the 2004/2005 season his best runs were two last-sixteen runs in ranking events, including losing in a final frame decider to Ding Junhui in the China Open.