Beijing time on April 12 news, the 2022 Snooker World Championship qualification tournament continues. In a focus match in the third round, "Chinese handsome" Xiao Guodong faced David Grace, and after the ninth set, the opponent won the match point 5-4, and Xiao Guodong had to win two consecutive sets if he wanted to qualify. Prior to this, "China's first brother" Ding Junhui defeated teammate Tian Pengfei 6-4 to advance to the promotion round.
The Snooker World Championship Qualifier is the prelude to this season's annual Drama World Championships and will determine 16 World Championship seats. Xiao Guodong is ranked 39th in the world, has played in the main tournament of the World Championship twice, and is a very strong player. In this World Championship qualifier, the tower has a bye in the first two rounds.
In the third round, Xiao Guodong's opponent was World No. 58 David Grace, who bye in the first round and advanced 6-4 in the second round. In the first set of the game, Xiao Guodong started slowly and hotly, and Grace played a single shot of 88 points, winning the first set 107-32 and starting 1-0. In the second set, Xiao Guodong returned the favor with a single 63 points, 68-0 clean sheet Grace, 1-1 equalization.
In the third set, Grace scored another 55 points to win another set 85-4 to give a 2-1 lead. In the fourth set, Grace won 75-24 through several starts, extending the lead to 3-1 and the two sides went to break.
In the fifth set, after returning from a break, Hong Kong was still in poor shape, and Grace scored another 65 points to win another set 74-31, further 4-1. In the sixth set, after losing three consecutive sets, Xiao Guodong stopped the decline in this set, and he pulled back a set 79-49 through several starts, chasing the score to 2-4.
In the seventh set, Xiao Guodong scored a single 70 points, 74-1 to win another set, the score was 3-4. In the eighth set, Xiao Guodong and Grace launched a tug-of-war, in the glue game, Xiao Guodong won 65-54 through several starts, the score was 4-4, and the two sides returned to the same running line.
In the ninth set, after losing three consecutive sets, after being chased by Xiao Guodong to 4-4, Grace gained an advantage at the beginning of the innings, winning 80-4 after a single shot of 66 points, the score came to 5-4, and won the match point of the game. If Xiao Guodong wants to qualify, he must win two consecutive sets!