On March 8, the 2022 World Snooker Tour Turkish Masters entered its second matchday, with China's snooker leader Ding Junhui appearing, and the first round opponent was Robert Milkins. As a result, Ding Junhui, who opened slowly and hotly, directly fell behind 0-3, and then once again fell behind the match point 1-4, played two shots to break the hundred, won four consecutive sets, completed a super big reversal, beat Milkins 5-4, avoided a round of travel, and advanced to the second round of 32.
The Turkish Masters is a new major ranking tournament on the World Snooker Tour this season, with a prize money of up to £100,000, and all players need to go through an early qualifying round to advance to the round of 64. Ding Junhui defeated Wales' Pajit 5-2 in the qualifiers and successfully advanced. At last week's Welsh Open, Ding Junhui blasted a perfect 3-stroke break in the first round of the game, beating Holt 4-1 to advance, but in the second round against his old rival O'Sullivan, Ding Junhui made several mistakes, and finally lost 2-4, missing the round of 16.
For Ding Junhui, this season has suffered a career trough, the world ranking fell out of the top 16 after the British Championship, and has been declining continuously since then, once falling out of the top 32, fortunately after the Welsh Open, he returned to the top 32, just ranked 32nd. The first round opponent of the Turkish Masters, Mirkkins, is Ding Junhui's old opponent, after the two have played each other 6 times, Ding Junhui has 4 wins and 2 losses. However, Milkins's performance this season can be described as quite bad, as of the Welsh Open, he has only won 3 games in the whole season, most of the competitions have been eliminated in the qualifiers or the first round, and the world ranking has dropped to 44th.
In the face of such an opponent, Ding Junhui did not show a strong desire to win, the start was unfavorable, low-level mistakes, allowing Milkins to complete the super point three times. In the second set, it was another simple mistake to miss the opportunity, and Milkins directly started to break the hundred and win another set. In the third set, Ding Junhui still did not find too good an opportunity, felt cold, and was caught by Milkins, directly completed the super score, and the big score expanded to a 3-0 lead. In the fourth set, Ding Junhui withstood the pressure, and the backhand chased back a set, 1-3 behind into the intermission.
In the fifth set, Milkins won straight and won the match point 4-1. In the sixth set, Ding Junhui adjusted in time, played a hundred, pulled back a match point, and fell behind 2-4. In the seventh set, Ding Junhui broke the back hand again, chased another match point, and fell behind 3-4. In the eighth set, Ding Junhui once again completed the super point with his backhand, directly chasing it to 4-4 and dragging it into the decider! In the last set, Ding Junhui took advantage of Mirkkins' mistakes, completed the super point with the backhand, completed a big reversal, and killed Milkins 5-4.
This time to Turkey to compete, Ding Junhui did not come alone, his wife and daughter walked together. At the unveiling ceremony of the red carpet on March 7, Ding Junhui took his daughter to make his first public appearance at the event, and Ding Junhui, who looked happy, held his daughter's hand and entered the scene at the same time, becoming the most eye-catching focus of the scene. I believe that the company of his family will make Ding Junhui have more motivation, after the first round of the flip adventure, Ding Junhui will play against the winner between Tian Pengfei and Karen Wilson in the second round.