On the evening of February 23, Beijing time, the second round of the snooker European Masters, following Xiao Guodong's 0-5 defeat to Jordan Brown, China's snooker was out of this round: Zhou Yuelong led 4-2 but squandered 3 match points, and was counter-killed by world champion Graham Dot! The big score was 4-5 and was eliminated!
In this 32-16 match, Zhou Yuelong faced world champion Graeme Dort. In the previous promotion process, Zhou Yuelong eliminated Gao Yang 5-1, and Graembdot narrowly defeated Mark Davis 5-4. In his career, Zhou Yuelong and Graembdot have played each other 6 times before, and Zhou Yuelong has only won 1 game.
In the first set, Zhou Yuelong scored a single 65 points, 71-22 to take the lead. In the second and third sets, the situation was similar, they were constantly alternating hands, Zhou Yuelong seized the opportunity, and won two consecutive sets of victories, and the General Bureau opened 3-0, a very good start.
In the fourth set, Graeme Dort won 62-1, and before the end of the first half, the snooker champion finally recovered a set, saving face and retaining the suspense of victory and defeat.
In the second half, Graeme Dort scored a single 75 points to make it 75-17 and follow up with another set. Zhou Yuelong withstood the pressure, and in the sixth set, he narrowly won 77-55, cutting off the momentum of his opponent's continuous pursuit of points.
In the seventh set, Graeme Dort 71-12 Zhou Yuelong chased the general score to 3-4, but Zhou Yuelong still held the match point. In the eighth set, Graeme Dort took the lead 58-22 to overtake the score, Zhou Yuelong did not concede defeat, however, Zhou Yuelong, who needed to be an opponent with a snooker, was instead done by Gram Dort, Zhou Yuelong was sent off the ball, and Gram Dort chased another set, saving 2 match points and dragging the game into the decider.
In the decider, Graeme Dort single-handedly wins! Zhou Yuelong suffered a major reversal from 4-2 to 4-5 and missed the round of 16.