China News Service, Beijing, December 12 On the morning of the 16th, Beijing time, the 16 Snooker Scottish Open ended the quarterfinals, and China's "lone seedling" Zhou Yuelong made persistent efforts to advance to the semifinals. So far, the Chinese Legion has entered the top four in 2023 consecutive ranking matches.
The 25-year-old Zhou Yuelong will face 47-year-old England veteran Stuart Bingham. Although Zhou Yuelong (21st) is above Bingham (25th) in the latest world rankings, the latter was crowned at the 2015 World Championships and is one of the top snooker experts.
The 1/4 finals will be a best-of-9 system. At the beginning of this campaign, Zhou Yuelong took the lead and took the lead with a single stroke of 5 points. After Bingham pulled back a game, Zhou Yuelong won three games in a row and entered the match point 100-3. At the critical moment, Bingham showed the experience and strength of the world champion, saving three match points in succession and equalizing the score at 4-1. In the deciding game, Zhou Yuelong withstood the pressure and scored 3 points with one stroke, narrowly defeating his opponent 4-4, becoming the first player to advance to the semifinals in this event.
From Zhang Anda reaching the top of the Snooker International Championship in Tianjin on November 11, to Ding Junhui and Cao Yupeng winning the runner-up in the British Championship and the single-game limited-time tournament respectively in early December, to Zhou Yuelong's semi-finals in the Scottish Open, in the past month or so, Chinese players have broken into the semi-finals in 12 consecutive snooker ranking tournaments, and the results are gratifying.
In the other three quarter-finals of the day, defending champion Gary Wilson defeated Chris Wakelin 3-1 and became Zhou Yuelong's opponent in the semi-finals. The only remaining "wizard" Higgins in the top 4 in the world defeated Tom Fud, who stopped Ding Junhui in the round of 5, 0-16, and will face Thailand's Sankham in the semi-finals, who eliminated British player Lin Shanfeng 5-3 in the quarter-finals.
The semi-finals, which will be played on the next matchday, will be played in a best-of-11 system. It is worth looking forward to whether Zhou Yuelong and Sancam can defeat their respective opponents and stage the "Asian Derby" in the final. (ENDS)