Xiao Guodong wins his first ranking title at the Wuhan Open after 17 years as a professional. In a varied final he wins 10–7 against Si Jiahui.
Until the semifinals, we had the impression that Judd Trump was the only one running in Wuhan. He played every one of his games at the TV table and the WST channels were also focused relatively monothematically on the new number one in the world rankings and the defending champion of the Wuhan Open. I honestly just the super dramatic and exciting decision frame against Chris Wakelin remembered in the quarterfinals. (I’m still dreaming about the last brown one…)
And in the end, others were in the spotlight.
Semifinals of the Wuhan Open in the highest quality
Si Jiahui ended the Trump show in the semifinals – and in style. He not only swept Judd out of the arena 6-2, no, he played a personal high break twice in the process. He followed a 144 in frame two with a maximum break in the fourth frame, the first of his career. Everyone was rightly full of praise. That was really an impressive performance.
The other semi-final
In the other semi-final it was a little tighter. Xiao Guodong beat his compatriot Long Zehuang, who had a fantastic week here. With relatively safe victories over Jack Lisowski, Ben Woollaston and Jackson Page, he surprisingly reached the semi-finals. There he made a tournament-high break with a 141 in frame four and took a 4-1 lead, but Xiao Guodong made an A comeback and grabbed the final place.
Finale: First one-sided, then exciting
After two high-quality semi-finals, a somewhat sluggish final often follows. And the fact that both were playing for their first world ranking title also meant that they would be nervous. At first it looked like a pretty one-sided box. Things weren’t going well for Si, he made unnecessary mistakes and lost several close frames. Xiao led 6-3 at the end of the first session.
In the evening he stormed away to 9-4 and only needed a single frame to win his first title. But Si Jiahui caught up frame by frame and put Xiao under a lot of pressure. In the end it was an absolutely nasty snooker, who decided the game.
The Northern Ireland Open continues on Sunday. There were no big surprises in the qualification and because of the staggered tournament schedule, all the top people are in the main round. Except probably Ronnie O’Sullivan.
Stephen Lee’s suspension expired on Saturday
After a twelve-year ban for match-fixing, Stephen Lee could theoretically play in the tour qualifying events. However, he still has a lot of debts to the world association and until he has paid them off, he cannot compete. Now he probably doesn’t have any particularly big ambitions himself, so he’s not expected to return.
On this occasion, the question naturally arose again as to whether he was even welcome from the fans’ point of view. Opinions differ on Twitter, but a majority would have no problem seeing him play again. I’m a bit torn. On the one hand, I am also for rehabilitation and second chances.
On the other hand, I don’t feel like welcoming people with open arms as if nothing had happened and/or everything was fine again. Zhao I’m not ready for that. I was simply too disappointed with his behavior for the bitter aftertaste to be completely gone. And besides, my feeling about it varies from case to case. It makes a big difference to me whether someone like Jamie Jones is banned for not reporting attempts at manipulation or like Lee himself who manipulated games.
How are you doing with that? Write us in the comments.
