World Grand Prix fans forced to leave mid-match in strange Hong Kong scene

There were strange scenes on the opening day of the World Grand Prix in Hong Kong on Tuesday as fans were forced to leave during a match due to a local curfew.

The tournament has moved to Hong Kong for the first time this year and is being held in the brand new Kai Tak Arena, with a capacity of up to 5,000.

However, it was a crowd of absolutely nobody who watched the conclusion of Kyren Wilson against Matt Selt and Wu Yize vs Pang Junxu in the evening session on Tuesday.

Attention was on Table One, where world champion Wilson had just fallen 3-2 behind against Selt, who was playing very well, making a break of 118 to win that fifth frame.

It was around 11.40pm local time at that stage of the match and the players left the arena with the spectators following them, causing a delay of around 15 minutes as all the fans departed.

Wilson’s management team posted on X: ‘Literally, fans HAVE to leave, due to policies. You can’t make it up!’

The players returned to play the rest of the game in an empty venue, with Wilson winning the next two frames to survive a scare and take a 4-3 win.

Wu and Pang continued on the other table in front of no spectators as they had all left before the game started, following the conclusion of John Higgins 4-3 Ali Carter on that table.

The reason for the fans having to leave is there is a midnight curfew in the area around the Kai Tak Arena, so as the games looked certain to go past that time, fans had to leave.

It is far from ideal in a sport that regularly sees games going past midnight, as demonstrated on the very first game of the event as two matches ran past that point.

However, World Snooker Tour has confirmed that the situation will not continue for the rest of the event.

A WST statement on the situation read: ‘Some fans were unable to watch the conclusion of the final match on Table One.

‘The Tournament Organising Committee has since communicated with Kai Tak Sports Park and the relevant departments. We are pleased to confirm that spectators will be permitted to remain in the venue for the conclusion of all evening sessions for the rest of the tournament.

‘We apologise for the inconvenience caused. Spectators who had tickets for this game will be able to exchange these for seats of the same value on Wednesday March 5th or Thursday 6th.’

On the other table, Wu made short work of Pang in front of no crowd, winning 4-0 with breaks of 111 and 75.

Wilson will now take onHiggins in the last 16, while Wu plays Stuart Bingham after the 2015 world champion beat Mark Williams earlier on Tuesday.

There were also wins for Judd Trump, Jack Lisowski, Dave Gilbert and Shaun Murphy on the opening day in Hong Kong.