2016 Paul Hunter Classic
The 2016 Paul Hunter Classic was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 24–28 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, 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
Amateur pre-qualifying
These matches were played in Fürth on 24–25 August 2016. All matches were best of 7 frames.Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
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