China News Service, Yushan, Jiangxi, March 21 (Reporter Wang Zumin) The 2024 Snooker World Open was held in the 16-to-8 round on the 21st. Chinese billiards star Ding Junhui defeated Grand Slam winner Sean Murphy 5-3. , advanced to the quarterfinals, and ended the nearly 11-year winless record against the latter.
Ding Junhui and Murphy are both members of the "80 Five Tigers" of snooker. Murphy is currently ranked sixth in the world and Ding Junhui is ninth. Although Ding Junhui has more ranking championships (14) than Murphy (12), Murphy can be called Ding Junhui's "nemesis." Since defeating Murphy at the Shanghai Masters in September 2013, Ding Junhui has never won against Murphy in the past 11 years. Therefore, this game is an opportunity for Ding Junhui to break the "curse".
In the previous round, of the eight Chinese players who entered the top 32, only Ding Junhui advanced to the top 16, making this game the only hope for the Chinese team to advance to the quarterfinals.
At the beginning of this campaign, Ding Junhui was in good condition, leading the first game with 95 points on a single stroke. But Murphy was not to be outdone, and after winning two consecutive games, he took the lead 2-1. Later, Ding Junhui responded with a two-game winning streak and regained the lead 3-2.
In the sixth game, Murphy broke 100 on a single stroke, and the two sides returned to the same starting point 3-3. Ding Junhui, who was getting better and better, did not give his opponent another chance. After winning two games in a row, he secured the victory 5-3. The past 11 years of "not winning against Murphy" finally became history.
This is a really high-level competition. Any tiny mistake by one side will become an opportunity for the other side to win. In all 8 games, both sides scored 50+ points in a single stroke in the winning round. Among them, Ding Junhui scored 130 points in a single stroke in the fourth round, and Murphy contributed two strokes to break the century (101, 121).
In 2017, Ding Junhui won the 13th ranking event championship of his career at the Yushan World Open, but fell into a long "championship drought" in ranking events after being crowned 14th at the 2019 British Championships. Now, Ding Junhui, who has advanced to the quarterfinals, has taken a step closer to his 15th ranking championship.
After the game, Ding Junhui expressed satisfaction with his performance in this game. He hopes to maintain this state in subsequent games and move forward steadily.
According to the schedule, the winner of the battle between Ding Junhui and Murphy will face the winner between O'Sullivan and Hussein Wafi in the quarter-finals. Unfortunately, in the afternoon game, O'Sullivan lost an upset 4-5 and ended up in the top 16. The "Ding Olympics" that was highly anticipated by fans did not have the opportunity to be staged in Yushan.
In that night's game, Mark Selby, ranked fifth in the world, lost 2-5 to Jackson Page. Among the top five players in the world, only the defending champion and world ranked second Trump Advance to the quarterfinals of this tournament.
The 2024 Snooker World Open will be held in the quarter-finals on the 22nd. Ding Junhui will compete with Iranian star Hussein Wafi in the "Asian Derby", Trump will face Kyren Wilson, and Neil Robertson will face Barry Hawkins, Jackson Page vs. Elliott Slesser. (over)