UK Championship snooker 2021: 'Still not an elite-level player' - Alan McManus unsure on Yan Bingtao

Updated 28/11/2021 at 14:04 GMT

"Yes he is a Masters champion, good luck to him and well done, but he has still got things to prove to me," Alan McManus told Eurosport of Masters champion Yan Bingtao. Yan fell at the hands of Ben Woollaston in the second round of the UK Championship at the Barbican Centre in York on Saturday. Stream the event and much more top snooker action live and on demand on discovery+

‘Not an elite-level player’ – McManus on Yan

Yan Bingtao crashed out of the UK Championship at the hands of Ben Woollaston, and Alan McManus has told Eurosport that the Chinese sensation has a lot to prove at the elite level.

The 21-year-old burst onto the scene last season with a shock victory over John Higgins to win the Masters.

The remainder of the 2020-21 campaign was disappointing for Yan, with his best results being runs to the quarter-finals of the Northern Ireland Open and European Masters.

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Yan made a bright start to the current season, reaching the semi-finals of the Northern Ireland Open and quarter-finals of the English Open, but the UK Championship at the Barbican proved a disappointment as Woollaston was much too good.

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There has been talk that Yan is capable of winning major titles on a regular basis, but McManus feels he has much to prove at the highest level.

"He is still not an elite-level player for me,” McManus said on Eurosport. “He has still got strings to his bow that he needs to add that others guys have that he doesn’t.

"He is very good at what he does, but I am not convinced.

"Yes he is a Masters champion, good luck to him and well done, but he has still got things to prove to me,

"You have to say what you see and that’s what I see, but he is very, very good.”

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