Last year's victory in the Bet series single-time limit was like an oasis in the desert for Ryan Day, and he hopes this week's game will give him much-needed encouragement. Another post-80s player, Ding Junhui, from the current career trajectory, has a striking resemblance to him at this stage.
For a player who has become accustomed to appearing regularly in the final stages of major tournaments, the past three years have been relatively boring. In addition to the successful one-time limited time tournament held in Milton Keynes a year ago, and the final of the 2019 Gibraltar Open, Ryan Dai has not reached the top 8 of any ranking tournament since 2018, and is "in pity" with Ding Junhui.
"I wish I knew why." The laid-back Welshman shrugged and said. "I can't tell. Maybe I tried too hard in the game, maybe I didn't practice enough. Or maybe it's just age that binds me, even though some of the older players still win titles. ”
Ryan Dai, 41, has had vision problems in recent months; examinations show that his left eye is weaker than his right eye. When he aimed at the target ball from a distance, the ball seemed to oscillate, and he had to wait for it to stabilize. But he insisted it didn't have much of an impact on his form, in fact he was confident in the second half of the season.
Ryan Day qualified for both the German Masters and the Bet Series European Masters. "I'm especially looking forward to going to Berlin next week, it's going to be the first time in two years that we're competing outside of the UK and it feels like waiting a lifetime. Hopefully, it won't be long before we can fly a lot to play overseas. ”
Ryan Day's previous ranking titles were won in Latvia in 2017 and Gibraltar in 2018, and he also won the 2018 Romanian Masters, which are ranking titles won overseas, so winning a single time limited time championship with live television in the United Kingdom is also an important moment in his career. In the final against Selby, he scored a staggering single-shot 67 to win with 24 points behind.
Ryan Day said: "It's great to be on the stage as a defending champion. He will face Jones in the first game of the South Wales Derby at 1pm in Leicester on Thursday. "I've been looking forward to the single game and really liked it. The peculiarity of such a tournament is that you can't prepare for it, you can only rely on 1 chance to try to score the difficult ball in the game. Playing fastball suits me well, and I'm the kind of player who can see the target ball very quickly and get out quickly. ”
The 11th edition of the single-time limited time tournament produced 11 different champions, but none of them could reach the final again, so Ryan could challenge a new record this week. Ryan Dai's career highest ranking is no. 6 in the world, and now ranks 28th, just a little higher than Ding Junhui, who is ranked 29th. Both need the champion to save points for themselves in order to reach the top 16 before the World Championships start. That way you don't have to play qualifying. (Code word translation is very laborious, please click to pay attention to moisturizer AB thank you)