But that sacrifice has now paid dividends and with fellow Chinese players Liu Song and LiangWenbo also in the snooker top 96, Ma Beng forsees a bright future for his countrymen in the sport.
Burnett's presence in the final means that for the fourth year running, one of the finalists in Shanghai will come from outside the world's top 16, keeping up the pattern established by Dominic Dale (2007), Ricky Walden (2008) and LiangWenbo (2009).