China News Service, Beijing, October 23. On the morning of the 23rd, Beijing time, the 2022 Snooker Northern Ireland Open ended the semi-final contest. Zhou Yuelong defeated Chinese player "nemesis" McGill 6:4 and will face the defending title in the final. Champion Mark Allen, this is the second time a Chinese player has reached the final of the ranking competition this season, and it is also the third time that Zhou Yuelong has entered the final of the ranking competition.

　　Zhou Yuelong's opponent in the semifinals, McGill, can be called the "nemesis" of Chinese players in this Open.

In the previous 3 rounds, the Scottish "post-90s" ranked in the top 20 in the world have eliminated Yan Bingtao, Tian Pengfei and Lu Haotian in a row.

Facing the Chinese players again this time, McGill appeared confident and took the lead at the beginning, taking a 1:0 lead.

　　However, after overcoming the world champion Murphy in this Open, and the 1/4 finals with "Brother Potato" Gilbert, the 24-year-old Zhou Yuelong has become more stable and more stable. toughness.

In the first 4 games, he equalized twice when he fell behind twice, and counterattacked when he fell into passive again with 3:4, won 3 games in a row, became the final winner with 6:4, and advanced to the ranking final for the third time. , This is also the second time that Chinese players have entered the ranking finals this season.

　　In this season's opening match of the Champions League (ranking version), China's "post-90s" Lu Ning reached the final.

But he fell short in the face of Belgian star Brecher and missed the title with 1:3.

　　In the other semi-final on the same day, the defending champion and local star Mark Allen of Northern Ireland defeated the world's third-ranked "Melbourne Machine" Neil Robertson 6:2, and joined Zhou Yuelong in the final.

This Open is Robertson's first appearance in the ranking match this season, and entering the semi-finals is a good start.

　　"Little Steel Cannon" Mark Allen can be called another "nemesis" of Chinese players in this Open.

From the qualifying round to entering the top 8, Mark Allen advanced after defeating Chinese players: he defeated Chang Bingyu 4:1 in the postponed qualifying round, defeated Chen Zifan 4:0 in the first round, and defeated Chen Zifan 4:3 in the second round. Killed Li Junwei and defeated Xiao Guodong 4-0 in the third round.

It is worth looking forward to whether Zhou Yuelong can win the "nemesis" again in the final after eliminating McGill, one of the "nemesis".

　　Prior to this, Zhou Yuelong had reached the finals twice in the European Masters and Snooker single-time event, but failed to win the championship.

Among them, in the European Masters final, he also left an embarrassing record of 0:9 loss to Neil Robertson.

Now that he has entered the final of the ranking competition again, Zhou Yuelong will attack the first ranking championship of his career.

　　A total of 27 players from the Chinese Legion, including 3 players from Hong Kong, China, played in the 2022 Northern Ireland Open qualifying round. A total of 13 players advanced to the main match, 8 players entered the top 32, 5 players entered the top 16, and 2 players reached the top 8. Zhou Yuelong advanced to the top 4 and the final alone.

Ding Junhui, the "first brother" of Chinese billiards, suffered a round trip in the main game, and Zhao Xintong, the world's highest ranked Chinese player, was upset in the postponed qualifying match.

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