Monday sees the 17th China Open take place since it became a ranking event in the late 1990s.

The prestigious tournament is held at the business end of the snooker season and for many years has been the penultimate major ranking event before the World Championship. Click here to see this year’s draw.

This year is set to be the richest China Open in history with a total prize money of £1million to be given out. The winner will receive a cheque for £225,000 – only the World Championship winner gets a bigger pay cheque during the whole season.

According to the history books Welshman Mark Williams is the most successful player of the China Open having won the title three times and finished runner-up on two occasions.

There are then a number of players who have won the China Open twice – these include Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark Selby Judd Trump, Ding Junhui and Peter Ebdon,

Here The Old Green Baize looks back at all the China Open winners since the tournament was given ranking status from 1999.

---

1999 – Ronnie O’Sullivan beat Stephen Lee in the final 9-2

2000 – Ronnie O’Sullivan beat Mark Williams in the final 9-3

2002 – Mark Williams beat Anthony Hamilton in the final 9-8

2005 – Ding Junhui beat Stephen Hendry in the final 9-5

2006 – Mark Williams beat John Higgins in the final 9-8

2007 – Graeme Dott beat Jamie Cope in the final  9-5

2008 – Stephen Maguire beat Shaun Murphy in the final 10-9

2009 – Peter Ebdon beat John Higgins in the final 10-8

2010- Mark Williams beat Ding Junhui in the final 10-6

2011 – Judd Trump beat Mark Selby in the final 10-8

2012 – Peter Ebdon beat Stephen Maguire in the final 10-9

2013 – Neil Robertson beat Mark Selby in the final 10-6

2014 – Ding Junhui beat Neil Robertson in the final 10-5

2015 – Mark Selby beat Gary Wilson in the final 10-2

2016 – Judd Trump beat Ricky Walden in the final 10-4

2017 – Mark Selby beat Mark Williams in the final 10-8