At present, snooker's most closely watched world championship draw table has been released. China has four snooker players in the main tournament, namely seeded players Zhao Xintong and Yan Bingtao, and Ding Junhui and Lu Haotian, who played all the way from the qualifiers. Among them, Ding Junhui, Yan Bingtao and Lu Haotian are in the upper half, while Zhao Xintong, who has gained fame this season, is alone in the lower half. However, compared to the other three Chinese players, Zhao Xintong had good luck. He is also expected to break an embarrassing record for this season at this World Championship. What is even more interesting is that Zhao Xintong's opponent in the first round staged a very dramatic scene in the last round of competition, and after the game, he directly lay on the ground.
Before this season, although the young player Zhao Xintong had some fame, he was definitely not a famous player. However, entering this season, Zhao Xintong has brought great surprises to the fans, which can be called a sudden rise. If you only look at the current results of this season, he is not only the best among The Chinese snooker players, but not long ago, he could be called the world's first place this season. His current latest world ranking is high in the world 6th, and from the world ranking, it can definitely be called a world-class master. In this season, he first won the British Championship championship in one of the three major competitions in a dark horse posture, and then won the German Masters championship, and the entry of two heavyweight champions allowed Zhao Xintong's status in the world snooker to improve rapidly. He also became the third snooker player in China to win at least two ranking titles and, most importantly, he is still a young player.
However, although Zhao Xintong has won two championship trophies in ranking competitions this season, there is a very embarrassing thing, that is, he has staged a round of travel in nine consecutive races this season. The nine tournaments are the Tour Championship, the European Masters, the Players Championship, the Limited Time Tournament, the Masters, the World Grand Prix, the Scottish Open, the Northern Ireland Tournament and the British Open. I have to say that the number of such a round of trips is really a bit much, and it is indeed a bit embarrassing for a world top ten player like him. At this World Championship, as a seeded player, he was directly shortlisted for the main competition.
The release of the lottery results made Zhao Xintong see the confidence to break his embarrassing record. Judging from the results of the draw, Zhao Xintong's first-round opponent was Jamie Clark, a player who played in the qualifiers. Seeing this name, I believe that many fans should still be relatively unfamiliar. Yes, Clark is not a world celebrity, and his strength is not too strong. He is currently ranked 66th in the world and it was through several rounds of qualifying that he was able to stand in the main stage of the World Championships. In fact, Clark once staged a dramatic scene in the fourth round of the qualifiers.
At the time, he was playing hard against former world champion Dortmund. By the 18th inning, the two sides had reached the point of competing for the last black ball. In the face of the error, Clark was very lucky to hit the black ball into the net hole, and finally eliminated Dort 10:8 to advance to the main world championship. At that time, Clark, who couldn't believe his eyes, actually fell directly on the ground to celebrate at the first time. Then he stood up and faced the camera and kept kissing. This shows how excited he is in his heart.
However, Clark met Zhao Xintong after entering the main competition. The two have played each other twice before, and Zhao Xintong can be said to have won both games. The first was at the 2020 Gibraltar Open, when Zhao Xintong swept his opponents 4-0. The second time was at this year's Gibraltar Tournament, Zhao Xintong won 4:1. After two games, Zhao Xintong scored 3 shots to break the hundred, which can be said to have an absolute advantage. Whether from the strength or psychological aspect, Zhao Xintong has a lot of certainty. Therefore, when the lottery results came out, some fans said that Zhao Xintong had good luck and should lie in the second round.