LONDON, Jan. 21 -- The China Open in April will become the only snooker event other than the World Championship to hit the one million pound (about 8.9 million RMB) prize money mark, World Snooker announced here on Sunday.

It was announced that according to a new four-year agreement, the world ranking event will run from April 1 to 8 in Beijing with a top prize of 225,000 pounds and a total prize fund of one million pounds. That's almost double last year's China Open total of 510,000 pounds, when the top prize was 85,000.

The winner's cheque will only be topped by the World Championship first prize of 425,000 pounds.

The final of the tournament will be best of 21 frames for the first time.

The China Open has been staged in the country's capital every year since 2005. Ding Junhui won the title that year as an 18-year-old, helping to spark a surge of interest in snooker in China. Since then top stars including Judd Trump, Neil Robertson and defending champion Mark Selby have lifted the trophy.

World Snooker Chairman Barry Hearn said: "This is a fantastic announcement which establishes the China Open in Beijing as the flagship tournament in Asia. It's remarkable to think that back in 2005 when this event was first staged, the total prize fund was only 200,000 pounds and the top prize 30,000 pounds - that shows how far we have come in the past 13 years in terms of the growth of snooker in China."?

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