China News Service, Yushan, Jiangxi, March 22 (Reporter Wang Zumin) A hearty victory sent Chinese billiards star Ding Junhui to the semi-finals of the 2024 Snooker World Open.
On the 22nd, Beijing time, in the quarter-finals of the 2024 Snooker World Open, Ding Junhui defeated Iranian player Hussein Wafi 5-0. This was the second 5-0 win in the main game of this World Open. (From the qualifying round to the quarter-finals, it is a best-of-nine-innings system). It is also the only game in which there is no opponent since the top 32 of this tournament.
In the previous round (16 out of 8), both famous Asian players had their highlight moments. Ding Junhui defeated Grand Slam winner Sean Murphy 5-3, breaking the curse of "not winning against Murphy" in the past 11 years. Hussein Wafi defeated O'Sullivan 5-4, causing the world hegemon who had won five crowns this season to stop in the top 16.
Currently, Ding Junhui is ranked ninth in the world and Hussein Wafi is ranked 21st. Ding Junhui, who occupies the home court in this campaign and is getting better, seems to be at ease. He not only won five games in a row, but also broke 100 in two shots (135 in the third game and 102 in the fifth game). In the second game, Hussein Wafi first scored 64 points in a single stroke, and Ding Junhui then scored 74 points in a single stroke to achieve the reversal of the game.
From the postponed qualifying round (128 advanced to 64) and the 64 advancing to the 32nd round, there was little success, to a masterclass performance in the "China Derby" (32 to 16 rounds) (5-1 victory over Cao Yupeng); from 1/ From his calmness and precision in the 8th finals to his smooth flow in the quarterfinals, Ding Junhui, who became more and more courageous as he fought, showed a strong recovery momentum.
After the game, he said that his performance in the past week has been relatively stable, and his success rate in winning single shots is also relatively high. In the battle with Wafi, he had a certain psychological advantage after taking the lead, especially his victory in the second game, which brought great psychological fluctuations to his opponent.
A reporter asked him, "Can we say that we are one step closer to the finals now?" He laughed and said, "If you allow me to play the finals tomorrow, it's not far away."
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 semi-finals, is only "two steps" away from his 15th ranking championship.
In the other three quarter-finals that day, defending champion and world number two Judd Trump defeated world number 11 Kyren Wilson 5-2, winning consecutive matches in this event. Advance to the semi-finals twice. Another TOP16 player, "Melbourne Machine" Neil Robertson also defeated Barry Hawkins 5-2.
Welsh player Jackson Page also defeated Elliott Slesser 5-2, continuing his "dark horse" trend. After reaching the quarter-finals of the ranking competition for the first time in the previous round, this "post-00s" youngster made persistent efforts this time and broke into the semi-finals of the ranking competition for the first time in his career.
The 2024 Snooker World Open will be held in the semi-finals on the 23rd. Ding Junhui will face Neil Robertson and Trump will face Jackson Page. (over)