Jackson Page became the second player in history to shoot a three-stroke breaker in his Crucible debut, beating the tournament's 9th seed Barry Hawkins 10-7.
文/Phil Haigh，《Metro》
Mark Williams, the representative of Welsh snooker, has long been optimistic about Page's future development. When 15-year-old Page appeared at the Welsh Open with a wild card, he showed a very high level of competition, and he finally ushered in the most important victory of his career so far at the age of 20.
Page ended the first phase of the match against Hawkins with a 6-3 lead. Coming to the second stage, the experienced Hawkins won two sets first to bring the score closer.
When the score came to 8:7, Page's lead could be said to be gone, but the young man showed super good psychological qualities, scoring 128 and 135 points in a row, and finally won the first round of the game with a strong and excellent performance.
According to the signing table, Page's next opponent is likely to be his mentor, friend and practice partner Mark Williams for many years. Williams led Michael White 7-2 after the first stage.
Page joked in an interview with Eurosport: "I guess [the next round against Williams] is really appropriate, isn't it? I'm looking forward to it, and I'm sure Mark will too. Whatever the outcome, we will still be friends. Of course, whoever loses could be banned by the club for two months. ”
The only player to shoot a three-stroke breaker on Paige's Crucible debut before Page was another Welshman Ryan Day, who unfortunately lost to John Higgins in the first round of the 2004 World Championships despite a four-stroke breaker.
Another game on Sunday night was a heavyweight showdown between Sean Murphy and Stephen Maguire, which Maguire won with a tough 10-8 victory.
It was a rather strange game and didn't see any of the players at their best. In the 10 innings Maguire won, he only shot two 70+.
Maguire said in an interview: "A very long game, really two days like a year, it's really bad. I felt like we were dragging each other down. We're getting old, and that's why. ”
The two sides played 72 minutes in the 14th inning, during which strange things happened, including Murphy's inexplicable hand-touch foul, and Maguire admitted that he "tried not to laugh" when he saw Murphy foul.
Maguire said: "I really thought he (Murphy) was going to win after that set and it was I who won the game in the end, and that was probably the best thing that happened to me because I was really a bit lax at the time. ”
"That's how you should play. If you concede defeat psychologically, you will be defeated. I just followed the feelings and did it all at once. ”
Maguire's next opponent is Zhao Xintong, and he must perform better to compete with Zhao Xintong, who is in a state of explosion. Zhao Xintong easily beat Jamie Clark 10-2 in the first round, and Maguire was impressed by such an excellent performance.
Maguire said: "This kid is a real blue chip stock. He's like a replica of Jimmy White, everyone was waiting for him to come forward a few years ago, and now it looks like he can. ”
"Zhao Xintong's long stage is the best I have ever seen, and now he has made great progress in terms of consecutive scores and anglo-japanese. He's great, and I'm very bullish on him. ”