The 2016 Paul Hunter Classic was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 24 and 28 August 2016 at the Stadthalle in Fürth, Germany. It was the fourth ranking event of the 2016/2017 season.
Named in honour of former professional snooker player Paul Hunter, this was the first time for which the event was a ranking tournament, having previously been a minor-ranking event of the Players Tour Championship. It was also the first of the two ranking events of the season, along with the Gibraltar Open (also a former European Tour event), which would be open to amateurs and would form the new Amateur Order of Merit.
Ali Carter was the defending champion, but he was defeated 3–4 by Yan Bingtao in the last 32.
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh made the 119th official maximum break in the second frame of his last 32 match against Kurt Maflin. It was Un-Nooh's first professional maximum break, having missed the final black on two occasions the previous season.
Mark Selby won his 8th ranking title, defeating Tom Ford 4–2 in the final.
Prize fund
The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:
Winner: €25,000 Runner-up: €12,000 Semi-final: €6,000 Quarter-final: €4,000 Last 16: €2,300 Last 32: €1,200 Last 64: €700
Non-televised highest break: € Televised highest break: € Total: €125,000
The "rolling 147 prize" for a maximum break stood at £40,000.
Main rounds
Top half
Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
Section 4
Bottom half
Section 5
Section 6
Section 7
Section 8
Finals
Final Final: Best of 7 frames. Referee: Jan Scheers Stadthalle, Fürth, Germany, 28 August 2016 Mark Selby 4–2 Tom Ford 85–32 (85), 13–63, 62–59, , , 85 Highest break 67 0 Century breaks 0 3 50+ breaks 1
Amateur pre-qualifying These matches were played in Fürth on 24–25 August 2016. All matches were best of 7 frames.
Round 1
Anton Woywod 0–4 Adam Stefanow Simon Dent 4–1 Carl Rosenberger Robin Otto 0–4 Michael Williams Stefan Gerst 1–4 Kevin Vandevoort Johny Moermans 4–3 Tom Zimmermann Imran Nisar 4–0 Dragos-Bogdan Dorojan Charlie Walters 4–2 Jurian Heusdens Regis D'Anna 0–4 Marcin Nitschke Richard Beckham 2–4 Daniel Ward Ben Jones 4–2 Stefan Joachim Thomas Rees 2–4 Soner Sari Chris Kilcoyne w/d–w/o Farakh Ajaib Wolfgang Frey 4–2 Markus Fischer Greg Casey 3–4 Tony Corrigan Phil O'Kane 4–2 Declan Brennan
Peter Brehm 0–4 Labeeb Ahmed Jonas Sprengel 0–4 Adam Bobat Khan Majid w/d–w/o Marcel Prakert Ashley Beal 4–1 Nicolas Georgopoulos Kevin Chan 0–4 Luca Kaufmann Hamim Hussain w/o–w/d Richard Haney Ben Murphy 2–4 Adam Edge Andy Lee 4–1 Stefan Schenk Andreas Hartung 4–2 Heiko Mutz Joshua Thomond 4–1 William Frey Daniel Schneider 2–4 Jamie Clarke Ralph Müller 0–4 Joshua Baddeley Saqib Nasir 4–0 Ralf Günzel Brandon Sargeant 4–1 Fabian Haken Andy Hicks 4–3 Wayne Townsend
Round 2
Sean Harvey 4–0 Manon Melief Jake Nicholson 1–4 Adam Stefanow Richard Wienold 4–3 Simon Dent Kaavya Bharath 0–4 Michael Williams Thomas Lancastle 3–4 Luke Pinches Thomas Frank 0–4 Kevin Vandevoort Kilian Baur-Pantoulier w/o–w/d Lukas Kleckers Oliver Brown 4–1 Johny Moermans Tomasz Skalski 0–4 Ashley Hugill Reggie Edwards 4–1 Imran Nisar Ryan Causton 4–2 Charlie Walters David Lilley 4–3 Marcin Nitschke Paul Norris 3–4 Alex Taubman Umar Ali Shaikh 0–4 Daniel Ward Loris Lehmann 0–4 Ben Jones Andreas Ploner 4–0 Aaron Cook Robert Read 4–0 Sebastian Stein Terence Davidson 1–4 Soner Sari Steven Hallworth 4–1 Farakh Ajaib Zak Surety 4–0 Wolfgang Frey Ali Kirim 3–4 Wendy Jans Stephen Bateman w/o–w/d Louis Heathcote Ian Glover 4–0 Tony Corrigan Hussam Al-Saffar 0–4 Joshua Cooper Jack Bradford 4–3 Phil O'Kane Felix Frede 4–0 Labeeb Ahmed George Pragnall 4–2 Adam Longley Prasit Buttakham 0–4 Adam Bobat
Conor McCormack 4–0 Norbert Hofheinz Lü Chenwei 4–0 Marcel Prakert Mark Davies w/d–w/o Ashley Beal Reanne Evans 4–0 Matthias Porn Matthew Glasby 4–3 Luca Kaufmann Daniel Womersley 4–2 Joe Steele Matthew Day 4–0 Hamim Hussain Jamie Bodle 2–4 Adam Edge Didier Gaugler 0–4 Patrick Einsle Bhavesh Sodha 2–4 Robert Drahn Jeremy Lee 2–4 Andy Lee James Dabell w/d–w/o Michael Collumb Simon Lichtenberg 4–0 Andrew Ivasiv Rolf Mahr 1–4 Andreas Hartung Julian Maschmeier 0–4 Lewis Gillen Daniel Devlin 4–0 Jörg Petersen Jeff Cundy 0–4 Gerard Greene Kishan Hirani 4–2 Joshua Thomond Barry Pinches 4–0 Patrick Whelan Gert Kempenaers 2–4 Mourad Naitali Laurin Winters w/o–w/d Matthew Marten Peter Lines 4–2 Jamie Clarke Zack Richardson 4–0 Joshua Baddeley Abdullah Atmar Ghulam Jilani 0–4 Saqib Nasir Stephen Kershaw 4–2 Andy Symons Daniel O'Regan 0–4 Brandon Sargeant Manasawin Phetmalaikul 0–4 Andy Hicks David Charleton 0–4 Mohammed Aurangzaib
Round 3
Sean Harvey 4–1 Adam Stefanow Richard Wienold 0–4 Michael Williams Luke Pinches 1–4 Kevin Vandevoort Kilian Baur-Pantoulier 1–4 Oliver Brown Ashley Hugill 4–1 Reggie Edwards Ryan Causton 0–4 David Lilley Alex Taubman 3–4 Daniel Ward Ben Jones 4–2 Andreas Ploner Robert Read 4–1 Soner Sari Steven Hallworth 4–1 Zak Surety Wendy Jans 1–4 Stephen Bateman Ian Glover 4–0 Joshua Cooper Jack Bradford 3–4 Felix Frede George Pragnall 4–1 Adam Bobat
Conor McCormack 0–4 Lü Chenwei Ashley Beal 4–2 Reanne Evans Matthew Glasby 4–2 Daniel Womersley Matthew Day 4–2 Adam Edge Patrick Einsle 4–0 Robert Drahn Andy Lee 1–4 Michael Collumb Simon Lichtenberg 4–0 Andreas Hartung Lewis Gillen 1–4 Daniel Devlin Gerard Greene 4–2 Kishan Hirani Barry Pinches 4–0 Mourad Naitali Laurin Winters 0–4 Peter Lines Zack Richardson 4–3 Saqib Nasir Stephen Kershaw 0–4 Brandon Sargeant Andy Hicks 4–0 Mohammed Aurangzaib
Century breaks
Amateur pre-qualifying stage centuries
119 Kishan Hirani 109 Gerard Greene 106, 104 Andy Hicks
106 Ashley Hugill 105 Ian Glover
Televised stage centuries
147, 141, 120 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 136, 128, 120, 102, 101 Tom Ford 136, 106 Michael Holt 132, 116 Liang Wenbo 132 Zhou Yuelong 127 Mark Selby 123 Zhao Xintong 121 Ali Carter 120, 101, 100 Mark Allen 120 Matthew Stevens 118, 110 Kurt Maflin 118, 105 David Gilbert
112 Joe Swail 111 Li Hang 110 Dominic Dale 109 Andrew Higginson 107 Zack Richardson 104 Robbie Williams 104 Jack Lisowski 104 Martin O'Donnell 104 Mark Davis 101 Mei Xiwen 100 Fergal O'Brien
References