Is the British champion Zhao Xintong the next Ding Junhui?

　　Our reporter Wang Yang

　　Yesterday, Beijing time, the 24-year-old Chinese player Zhao Xintong defeated Belgian player Luca Brechel 10 to 5 in the 2021 Snooker Championship finals. He won the first championship of his career while also becoming a player. The owner of the "Three Big Games" championship trophy.

　　As one of the longest history of professional snooker competitions in the world, the British Championships, World Championships, and Masters are also known as the "three major competitions" of snooker.

Previously, China’s “one brother” Ding Junhui had won the British Championship three times in 2005, 2009 and 2019.

Now, Zhao Xintong has become the second Chinese person to win the competition.

So, will he be the next Ding Junhui?

　　After winning, Zhao Xintong received a bonus of 200,000 pounds, which also made his world ranking jump to ninth place.

The 2019 British Championship winner Ding Junhui dropped to 27th due to the expiration of 200,000 pounds of bonus points (valid for 24 months).

Judging from the world ranking alone, Zhao Xintong came from behind and has surpassed the 34-year-old eldest brother Ding Junhui.

But from the overall performance of the large-scale professional rankings, Zhao Xintong still has a big gap with Ding Junhui.

　　At the age of 18, Ding Junhui won the 2005 China Open as a foreign card player. This was also the first ranked championship in his career.

At the British Championships in the same year, Ding Junhui fought hard to defeat the star Steve Davis in 16 rounds and became famous as a young man.

Although Ding Junhui has not yet won the World Championship, which is the highest honor in the snooker world, the 14 ranking championship trophies in his honor room are enough to prove his identity and strength as a first-class player.

　　In contrast, Zhao Xintong is a late bloomer. Before the final of the British Championships, he only reached the semi-finals in the 2018 Chinese Championships.

With a stable mentality and aggressive play style, Zhao Xintong finally pierced the window paper between himself and the champion.

　　For young players, winning a major ranking tournament will not only give them a huge boost in self-confidence, but they will also be able to get better picks in subsequent matches due to ranking among the top 16 in the world, which is conducive to getting better. good grade.

This can be seen in Yan Bingtao, another young Chinese "post-00" teenager.

Yan Bingtao won the Ranking Tournament for the first time in 2019, and this year he stood on the podium of the Masters in the "three major tournaments".

　　Unlike Ding Junhui's sophisticated and comprehensive, Yan Bingtao's tenacity and aggressiveness, Zhao Xintong's style of play is more offensive.

Last season’s World Taiwan Federation’s technical statistics showed that Zhao Xintong’s average stroke time was 17.79 seconds, ranking second in the world at this speed.

Watching his games always reminds people of O'Sullivan the Rockets when he was young.

　　He once compared Zhao Xintong to Federer’s O’Sullivan in Taiwan. He commented on Zhao Xintong after the game, “There is no doubt that he is very talented. But Hendry has already aspired to the rankings at the age of 17, and Zhao needs to hurry up and let him He reached a certain height.” When it comes to specific techniques, “Rocket” said: “He sometimes lacks tactical skills and attention to details. He needs to change because when there is some chaos in the game, he always seems to fall Downwind. He needs to make his defensive skills better."

　　In this regard, Zhao Xintong said that after 6 years of polishing in the professional arena, he has gradually matured and firmly established his offensive style of play.

"This is my style. Although there are sometimes some low-level mistakes, I have always believed that there is no need to change my style. I also know that I need to be strengthened in defense, and I must be more careful and patient. Yingjin Winning the championship boosted my confidence and made me believe that I can do better in the future and win more games."

　　Obviously, whether he can become the next Ding Junhui is not a question that Zhao Xintong is thinking about right now.

However, it is foreseeable that due to the rapid growth of him and Yan Bingtao, Ding Junhui will no longer fight alone in the "Chinese Legion" in the large ranking competition.

The three people working together will help China Snooker achieve higher achievements.