| Tournament Name: | Paul Hunter Classic |
| Venue: | Stadthalle |
| Location: | Fürth |
| Country: | Germany |
| Organisation: | World Snooker |
| Format: | Ranking event |
| Total Prize Fund: | €125,000 |
| Winners Share: | €25,000 |
| Highest Break: | (147) |
| Score: | 4–2 |
| Previous: | 2015 |
| Next: | 2017 |
The 2016 Paul Hunter Classic was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 24 and 28 August 2016 at the Stadthalle in Fürth, Germany.[1] It was the fourth ranking event of the 2016/2017 season.[2]
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.[3] It was also the first of the two ranking events of the season, along with the Gibraltar Open (also a former European Tour event), which would be open to amateurs and would form the new Amateur Order of Merit.[4]
Ali Carter was the defending champion,[5] but he was defeated 3–4 by Yan Bingtao in the last 32.[6]
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.[7]
Mark Selby won his 8th ranking title, defeating Tom Ford 4–2 in the final.[8]
The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:[9]
The "rolling 147 prize" for a maximum break stood at £40,000.[10]
| Final: Best of 7 frames. Referee: Jan Scheers Stadthalle, Fürth, Germany, 28 August 2016 | |||
| Mark Selby | 4–2 | Tom Ford | |
| 85–32 (85), 13–63, 62–59,,, | |||
| 85 | Highest break | 67 | |
| 0 | Century breaks | 0 | |
| 3 | 50+ breaks | 1 | |
These matches were played in Fürth on 24–25 August 2016. All matches were best of 7 frames.[11] [12] [13] [14]
| width=45% | width=10% | width=45% | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0–4 |  Adam Stefanow | ||||
| Simon Dent | 4–1 | Carl Rosenberger | |||
| 0–4 | Michael Williams | ||||
| 1–4 |  Kevin Vandevoort | ||||
| Johny Moermans | 4–3 | Tom Zimmermann | |||
| Imran Nisar | 4–0 |  Dragos-Bogdan Dorojan | |||
| Charlie Walters | 4–2 | Jurian Heusdens | |||
| 0–4 | Marcin Nitschke | ||||
| 2–4 | Daniel Ward | ||||
| Ben Jones | 4–2 | Stefan Joachim | |||
| 2–4 |  Soner Sari | ||||
| w/d–w/o | Farakh Ajaib | ||||
| Wolfgang Frey | 4–2 | Markus Fischer | |||
| 3–4 |  Tony Corrigan | ||||
| Phil O'Kane | 4–2 | Declan Brennan |
| width=45% | width=10% | width=45% | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0–4 | Labeeb Ahmed | ||||
| 0–4 | Adam Bobat | ||||
| w/d–w/o | Marcel Prakert | ||||
| Ashley Beal | 4–1 | Nicolas Georgopoulos | |||
| 0–4 | Luca Kaufmann | ||||
| Hamim Hussain | w/o–w/d | Richard Haney | |||
| 2–4 | Adam Edge | ||||
 Andy Lee | 4–1 | Stefan Schenk | |||
| Andreas Hartung | 4–2 | Heiko Mutz | |||
| Joshua Thomond | 4–1 | William Frey | |||
| 2–4 | Jamie Clarke | ||||
| 0–4 | Joshua Baddeley | ||||
| Saqib Nasir | 4–0 | Ralf Günzel | |||
| Brandon Sargeant | 4–1 | Fabian Haken | |||
| Andy Hicks | 4–3 | Wayne Townsend |
| width=45% | width=10% | width=45% | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sean Harvey | 4–0 | Manon Melief | |||
| 1–4 | Adam Stefanow | ||||
| Richard Wienold | 4–3 | Simon Dent | |||
| 0–4 | Michael Williams | ||||
| 3–4 | Luke Pinches | ||||
| 0–4 | Kevin Vandevoort | ||||
| Kilian Baur-Pantoulier | w/o–w/d | Lukas Kleckers | |||
| Oliver Brown | 4–1 | Johny Moermans | |||
| 0–4 | Ashley Hugill | ||||
| Reggie Edwards | 4–1 | Imran Nisar | |||
| Ryan Causton | 4–2 | Charlie Walters | |||
| David Lilley | 4–3 | Marcin Nitschke | |||
| 3–4 | Alex Taubman | ||||
| 0–4 | Daniel Ward | ||||
| 0–4 | Ben Jones | ||||
 Andreas Ploner | 4–0 | Aaron Cook | |||
| Robert Read | 4–0 | Sebastian Stein | |||
| 1–4 | Soner Sari | ||||
| Steven Hallworth | 4–1 | Farakh Ajaib | |||
| Zak Surety | 4–0 | Wolfgang Frey | |||
| 3–4 | Wendy Jans | ||||
| Stephen Bateman | w/o–w/d | Louis Heathcote | |||
| Ian Glover | 4–0 | Tony Corrigan | |||
| 0–4 | Joshua Cooper | ||||
| Jack Bradford | 4–3 | Phil O'Kane | |||
| Felix Frede | 4–0 | Labeeb Ahmed | |||
| George Pragnall | 4–2 | Adam Longley | |||
| 0–4 | Adam Bobat |
| width=45% | width=10% | width=45% | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conor McCormack | 4–0 | Norbert Hofheinz | |||
 Lü Chenwei | 4–0 | Marcel Prakert | |||
| w/d–w/o | Ashley Beal | ||||
| Reanne Evans | 4–0 | Matthias Porn | |||
| Matthew Glasby | 4–3 | Luca Kaufmann | |||
| Daniel Womersley | 4–2 | Joe Steele | |||
| Matthew Day | 4–0 | Hamim Hussain | |||
| 2–4 | Adam Edge | ||||
| 0–4 | Patrick Einsle | ||||
| 2–4 | Robert Drahn | ||||
| 2–4 | Andy Lee | ||||
| w/d–w/o | Michael Collumb | ||||
| Simon Lichtenberg | 4–0 |  Andrew Ivasiv | |||
| 1–4 | Andreas Hartung | ||||
| 0–4 | Lewis Gillen | ||||
| Daniel Devlin | 4–0 | Jörg Petersen | |||
| 0–4 | Gerard Greene | ||||
| Kishan Hirani | 4–2 | Joshua Thomond | |||
| Barry Pinches | 4–0 | Patrick Whelan | |||
| 2–4 |  Mourad Naitali | ||||
| Laurin Winters | w/o–w/d | Matthew Marten | |||
| Peter Lines | 4–2 | Jamie Clarke | |||
| Zack Richardson | 4–0 | Joshua Baddeley | |||
| 0–4 | Saqib Nasir | ||||
| Stephen Kershaw | 4–2 | Andy Symons | |||
| 0–4 | Brandon Sargeant | ||||
| 0–4 | Andy Hicks | ||||
| 0–4 | Mohammed Aurangzaib |
| width=45% | width=10% | width=45% | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sean Harvey | 4–1 | Adam Stefanow | |||
| 0–4 | Michael Williams | ||||
| Luke Pinches | 1–4 | Kevin Vandevoort | |||
| 1–4 | Oliver Brown | ||||
| Ashley Hugill | 4–1 | Reggie Edwards | |||
| 0–4 | David Lilley | ||||
| 3–4 | Daniel Ward | ||||
| Ben Jones | 4–2 | Andreas Ploner | |||
| Robert Read | 4–1 | Soner Sari | |||
| Steven Hallworth | 4–1 | Zak Surety | |||
| 1–4 | Stephen Bateman | ||||
| Ian Glover | 4–0 | Joshua Cooper | |||
| 3–4 | Felix Frede | ||||
| George Pragnall | 4–1 | Adam Bobat |
| width=45% | width=10% | width=45% | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0–4 | Lü Chenwei | ||||
| Ashley Beal | 4–2 | Reanne Evans | |||
| Matthew Glasby | 4–2 | Daniel Womersley | |||
| Matthew Day | 4–2 | Adam Edge | |||
| Patrick Einsle | 4–0 | Robert Drahn | |||
| 1–4 | Michael Collumb | ||||
| Simon Lichtenberg | 4–0 | Andreas Hartung | |||
| 1–4 | Daniel Devlin | ||||
| Gerard Greene | 4–2 | Kishan Hirani | |||
| Barry Pinches | 4–0 | Mourad Naitali | |||
| 0–4 | Peter Lines | ||||
| Zack Richardson | 4–3 | Saqib Nasir | |||
| 0–4 | Brandon Sargeant | ||||
| Andy Hicks | 4–0 | Mohammed Aurangzaib |