China's 7th out of the world! Ding Junhui won three consecutive games to advance to the round of 16, and Lu Haotian won 12 consecutive games. The first matchday of the 2022 Snooker Gibraltar Open has come to an end, and the round of 16 has decided eight places, including two Chinese players, namely Ding Junhui and Lu Haotian, while the seeded player, currently ranked 7th in the world, Zhao Xintong, lost to Chris Wakelin 1-4 and was out early.
Since the Gibraltar Open only has a total of 3 days of playing time, the schedule is very tightly arranged, and the first matchday will determine 8 round of 16 seats, which means that players need to go through 3 rounds of competition to advance to the round of 16, and the second matchday will replicate the schedule of the first matchday, and then decide the remaining 8 top 16 seats. The third matchday will start with the quarter-finals until the winner is decided. This season, Ding Junhui's world ranking has fallen sharply, once falling out of the top 30, but in recent times, Ding Junhui's state has rebounded, repeatedly blasting out a single shot at the offensive end, and the quality of defense is also very high, although there is still some gap with the peak, but it can already be seen that he is working hard. This Gibraltar Open, Ding Junhui three matches a day, the first round against Mark Lloyd, the gap between the strength of the two is too large, Ding Junhui played three consecutive 50+ shots, 4-0 sweep the opponent to advance.
In the second round, Ding Junhui against the strong enemy Gary Wilson, originally everyone thought that this game would be very intense, but Ding Junhui felt hot, did not give Gary Wilson too many opportunities, the first three innings, Ding Junhui played a single 52 points and 64 points, to lead 2-1, the fourth set Ding Junhui bombed a single shot 90 points to win, the fifth set Ding Junhui was a single shot 112 points to lock the win, so as to win the opponent with a total score of 4-1. In the third round, Ding Junhui played against Aaron Hill, the first two sets, Ding Junhui blasted out a single par of 88 points and 90 points, and both were clean sheet opponents, the third set, Ding Junhui won 85-23, in the fourth set, Hill played a single 75 points to win back the first set, the fifth set, Ding Junhui blasted out a single 69 points and 54 points to keep a clean sheet, thus winning 4-1 on aggregate, so that Ding Junhui won 3 consecutive games and advanced to the round of 16.
There is also a Chinese player Lu Haotian who also performed very well, winning 12 consecutive sets in 3 games, not losing 1 set, and strongly advancing to the round of 16. In the first round, Lu Haotian blasted out a single shot of 99 points and 97 points, sweeping Alan Taylor 4-0. In the second round, Lu Haotian's attack was even more fierce, blasting out a single shot of 112 points, 64 points, 54 points, and a 4-0 victory over Ross Muir. In the third round, Lu Haotian felt hot and blasted out a single shot of 130 points, 102 points, and 51 points to beat Michael GeorgIo 4-0. On the second match day, there will be nine Chinese players, namely Zhou Yuelong, Wu Anyi, Tian Pengfei, Chen Zifan, Fan Zhengyi, Lei Peifan, Gao Yang, Zhao Jianbo and Lu Ning.