Sir Rodney Walker, chairman of World Snooker, the commercial arm of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, acknowledged last month that China was the engine driving the sport's future.

"We have been staging world ranking events in China since 1990, and we are sure that our presence has helped to drive the dramatic growth in the popularity of snooker during that period," he said.

"Last year's (China Open) final was watched by an astonishing 110 million people, and that is a clear example of the status of our sport in this country.

"China is such a key growth area for snooker and we are delighted to have capitalized on the great success of last year's tournament in Beijing."

World Snooker has already set up a Chinese language website and, based on the success of last year's event, is looking at staging tournaments in Thailand and Macao.

"We now intend to drive a similar level of expansion across Asia as part of our ambition to develop snooker as a truly international sport," Walker said on World Snooker's website.

"Creating world-class snooker tournaments in Asia is one of our key ambitions," he said. "Our task force is focused to achieve just that, and we are sure that players and fans alike will agree that this is excellent news for the sport."

Next season, China will have even more representatives on the main professional tour after Tian Pengfei and Liu Song qualified by winning Pontin's International Open Series events.

Zhang Xiaoning, president of the China Billiards and Snooker Association, said there were big plans to develop the sport.

"We are working ever more closely with World Snooker," he said.

"We intend to invite coaches to China to support new training initiatives and confirm a full national tour which will support new and young players coming into the sport."

The China Open runs from March 20-26.