Ding Junhui once again fell in the semi-finals, although this is the first time in his past three years to reach the final four of the ranking competition, but the three consecutive years of championship drought also let him suffer the longest trough of his career. This was another blow to his self-confidence, which was close to recovering.
At this Turkish Masters, Ding Junhui once showed a rare good state. The first round of the 5-4 Jedi reversed Milkins, the second round 5-3 against Wilson, and the third round against Scarlett, relying on the fame of the offensive feel and mother ball control.
In the match against Scarlett, he hit 147 twice in a row, although he failed to succeed, but also left 2 shots to break the hundred, 5 strokes 50+ offensive data. In the last round, Ding Junhui was even stronger, taking former world champion Dort 5-1 and reaching the final four of the ranking tournament for the first time in 3 years. Ding Junhui's opponent in the semi-finals was Selter, who eliminated Gould.
In the first set, although Ding Junhui took the lead, he made a mistake in playing the black ball in the bottom bag, allowing Serte to reap the benefits of the fisherman. Sert then won the second set to take a 2-0 lead. In the 3rd set, Ding Junhui scored 56 points and drew with the other side. After resetting the black ball, Ding Junhui missed the ball in defense, and Serte scored from the far platform to lead 3-0.
In the 4th set, Ding Junhui finally found his touch, seized on the opponent's mistakes, and scored 97 points to make the score 1-3. Subsequently, Ding Junhui played a single shot of 60 points and 90 points in a row, and played four consecutive sets to win the score 4-3, leading the opponent for the first time.
However, Sert then broke out, winning two consecutive sets to win 5-4 and take the lead in getting the match point. In the crucial 10th set, Ding Junhui started again, scoring 84 points in a single shot, dragging the game into the decider.
In the 11th round, Ding Junhui not only felt cold in the hand, but also had extremely bad luck. Sert lost the black ball after 33 points, and the result was very good luck, the mother ball was blocked by the blue ball, so that Ding Junhui did not have a direct attack opportunity. The two sides then fell into a defensive battle.
Ding Junhui lost in the defensive competition, made 2 consecutive major mistakes, and directly sent the red ball to the mouth of the bag. Serte laughed at the gift and directly exceeded the score. Ding Junhui sat in a chair very helpless, closed his eyes in despair, and did not wait for Sert to finish playing, he conceded defeat in advance, although the result was already doomed. In the end, Serte beat Ding Junhui 6-5 and reached the final of the ranking tournament for the second time in his career.
Such a defeat made Ding Junhui lose all his achievements and set 2 major humiliating records: 1. He was blocked out of the final for 3 consecutive years and fell into the longest trough of his career. 2. Suffered the first defeat in 7 years against Serte, and the last loss to the opponent had to be traced back to the 2015 6 Red Ball World Championships, when Ding Junhui lost 2-6 to the opponent. Since then, Ding Junhui has maintained a winning streak against Serte.
To make matters worse, after a long period of lows, Ding Junhui has now fallen to 32nd in the world rankings, and the single-season ranking has fallen to 72nd. Such a low ranking, and his title of "China's first brother" is really not worthy of the name. Can he get back to the top?