original title:
Snooker Scottish Open: Ding Junhui stopped in the top 32 and Lu Haotian advanced to the top 16
China News Service, Beijing, December 14th. On the morning of the 14th, Beijing time, the 2023 Scottish Open ended on the third day of the main draw. In the 32-to-16 round, Chinese billiards star Ding Junhui suffered a decisive defeat and stopped in the top 32. Another Chinese player, Lu Haotian, took the lead in advancing to the top 16.
Ding Junhui competed with England star Tom Ford for a spot in the top 16, which was one of the highlights of the day. The two sides had faced off many times before, with Ding Junhui having the absolute advantage. Among them, in the semi-finals of the British Championship and the 6-Red Ball World Championship last season, Ding Junhui defeated his opponents and advanced to the finals. In the 1/8 finals of the British Championships that ended recently, Ding Junhui once again defeated Tom Ford to advance to the quarterfinals. But after finishing second in the Tianjin International Championships last month, Tom Ford’s world ranking once surpassed Ding Junhui.
This time they met their old enemies again, and both sides were tit for tat. The first 6 games were tied at 3-3. In the deciding game, Tom Ford seized the opportunity and scored 81 points on a single stroke to seal the victory. While successfully “revenge”, he replaced his opponent and advanced to the top 16. Prior to this, Ding Junhui had suffered from a “championship drought” in ranking events for more than four years. This defeat has once again postponed his goal of winning the 15th ranking event title.
In the 32-to-16-round competition that day, there were three Chinese players on the stage. Among them, Pang Junxu lost to Scottish star Anthony McGill 2-4; in a “China Derby”, Lu Haotian defeated 19-year-old Liu Hongyu 4-2, becoming the first Chinese player to advance to the top 16 in this tournament.
On the same day, in the final round of 64 to 32 rounds, three Chinese “post-00s” young players had 1 win and 2 losses – last season’s World Championship semi-finalist Si Jiahui defeated Belgian player Julien 4-2. ·Leclair became the seventh Chinese player to advance to the top 32 in this tournament. The 19-year-old Xing Zihao lost to Gary Wilson 3-4, and Yuan Sijun lost to Sam Craigie 0-4. The two were eliminated together.
In that day’s event, Brecher, ranked fourth in the world, and Selby, ranked fifth in the world, both stopped in the top 32. So far, the top eight players in the world have missed the top 16 of this Scottish Open. Except for top-ranked O’Sullivan who temporarily retired from the competition and sixth-placed Neil Robertson who did not sign up to participate, the other six famous players were eliminated in the first three days of the event.
On the next match day of the Scottish Open, in the final round of 32 to 16, Zhang Anda and Si Jiahui will bring another “Chinese Derby”; in the first round of the main draw, due to their opponents Zhou Yuelong, who retired from the competition and “won”, will face British veteran Andrew Higginson.
2023-12-14 07:42:00
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