After a week of break in the final phases of tournaments, the world snooker circuit During the last eight days in China he experienced the penultimate tournament before the first tournament of the ‘Triple Crown’ and second ‘major’ of the season, the United Kingdom Championship. It was a International Championship who has already taken over this Monday to the Champion of Champions.
Ding Junhui became champion in his country, in a tournament held in Nanjing. He did it after defeating in the final this Sunday by 10-7 and Chris Wakelinwhich was the first appearance for both in a final this season. Ding won his fifteenth ranking tournamentfirst since a very distant UK in 2019, and his second tournament since then, since last year he won the Red Six Ball World Cup. Wakelin, for his part, could not add a second professional tournament after winning the 2023 Shoot Out, in what was his third final.
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Ding won after completely changing the direction with which the final began. Wakelin dominated by 1-4 loose from the beginning in the construction of breaks. However, Ding reacted late in the first session to win the final four frames and lead 5-4 into the second. At the beginning he added two other tables, for a total of six in a row, which distanced him with a 7-4 that left him close to victory. Wakelin pressed to 7-6, but three boards of the next four, with a 98 as the highest-scoring break in the final in the fourteenth frame, led Ding to victory.
In this way, Ding Junhui achieved his second title in a tournament that he is particularly good at and that has always been held in China. He was already champion in 2013 after winning the ‘decider’ 10-9 against Marco Fuwhile he also reached the final in 2016. Of course, then he had no chance against a Mark Selby who swept 10-1.
But Ding was keen to maintain the Chinese romance with a tournament that returned for the first time since the pandemic last season. Then Zhang Anda won, who has had a compatriot as his successor. Curiously, to round out the Chinese dominance, the tournament left a maximum break for Xu Si.
Ding He was overwhelming in the initial rounds. He defeated Martin O’Donnell 6-1 in his debut and defeated Hossein Vafaei 6-0 in the second round. Already in the third round he beat Jiang Jun 6-3 to face a great challenge in the quarterfinals: Kyren Wilson. Ding defeated the world champion 6-4 and also dominated Xu Si 9-6 in the semifinals to reach the final of the tournament. If he had left by the way in the round of 16 Judd Trump (6-4).
The picture was not at all simple. Wakelinwho started directly in the round of 32 when Zak Surety did not appear, but who had to beat Shaun Murphy (6-3), Mark Williams (6-4), John Higgins (6-5) and Xiao Guodong (9- 8) to play the final. The defending champion Zhang You stayed in the second round (6-1 against Lyu Haotian), the same one in which they lost Ronnie O’Sullivan (6-4 contra Pang Junxu), Mark Allen (6-2 against Xiao) and Neil Robertson (6-1 against Barry Hawkins later defeated by Kyren Wilson 6-2).
This tournament, beyond the title, was important because it distributed the last ticket for the Champion of Champions which was launched this Monday. Ding will therefore be in the fight among the sixteen contenders for a tournament of champions with explosive duels already from the first round.
The champions of the 2024-2025 season on the world snooker circuit
1. Championship League (ranking): campeón Ali Carter
2. Shanghai Masters (non-ranking): champion Judd Trump
3. Xi’an Grand Prix (ranking): champion Kyren Wilson
4. Saudi Arabia Masters (ranking): champion Judd Trump
5. English Open (ranking): champion Neil Robertson
6. British Open (ranking): campeón Mark Selby
7. Wuhan Open (ranking): champion Xiao Guodong
8. Northern Ireland Open (ranking): champion Kyren Wilson
9. International Championship (ranking): campeón Ding Junhui
