In the early morning of April 21, Beijing time, the 2022 Snooker World Championships ended a very eye-catching first-round 32-16 match at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. After 18 rounds of competition, Chinese player Ding Junhui still lost to No. 5 seed Karen Wilson 8-10, stopping the first round of the two consecutive World Championships and ending hisnother championship-free season. Having participated in the World Championships for 16 consecutive times, "Xiaohui" is now 35 years old, and objectively and pessimistically, his dream of a world championship has become more difficult to realize. Perhaps, the dream of chinese snooker players in this world championship really has to be realized by the younger generation of Zhao Xintong and Yan Bingtao.
Ding Junhui is one of the two Chinese golfers who successfully entered the main tournament from the qualifiers, compared to as many as 20 Chinese players who were eliminated in the qualifiers, which also shows that Ding Junhui still has a high level, worthy of being the "one brother" and leader of China's snooker. His signing position in the first round of the main game is not good or bad, against Wilson, who has a similar record of winning and losing in the previous confrontation, it is a signing position where opportunities and challenges coexist, so it is still highly expected by fans. Of course, the local professional media and bookmakers in the United Kingdom have come to the same conclusion, that is, Ding Junhui will lose by a slight disadvantage, and the most likely score is 8-10 or 9-10. This prediction is the same as the final result, and it also shows that the overall ratio between Ding Junhui's current competitive status and level and the runner-up winner of the last World Championships, Wilson, is relatively normal.
But fans who watched the game could see that Ding Junhui still had the opportunity to counterattack the seeded players on the following gram, such as he played a good start of 3-0 and led 5-4 at the end of the first stage. Unfortunately, in the second half of the competition, Ding Junhui's loopholes are getting more and more, and his mistakes are becoming more and more frequent and unstable. Although he scored 2 shots and 2 strokes 50+ in the second stage, he made a mistake in the second round until 8-8, and finally made two consecutive sets of mistakes, giving the victory to Wilson, and regretting that he had stopped the first round again after the last World Championship. At this point, the Chinese snooker army remains in the World Championships with two people, namely the No. 7 seed Zhao Xintong and the No. 16 seed Yan Bingtao, two players who directly qualified for the main tournament and are currently ranked highest, both of whom successfully broke through the first round and advanced to the round of 16.
He has participated in the World Championships for 16 consecutive times, reached the final as a qualifier in 2016 and won the second place, and has also reached the final four once before, which is the best record achieved by Chinese snooker and even Asian snooker players to participate in the World Championships so far. However, unfortunately, with the increase of age, the decline of competitive status, and the gradual transfer of energy to the family, and some other jobs, investment projects have been exposed, Ding Junhui's focus on snooker has obviously decreased, coupled with the decrease in the number of participants due to the outbreak of the epidemic, Ding Junhui's ranking has also declined year by year.
He is the only Player in Asia who has ever been ranked No. 1 in the world (although for a short time), and has now dropped to 29th, and is no longer a "Chinese brother" in terms of ranking alone. Moreover, the last time Ding Junhui won the ranking championship was more than two years ago (2019 British Championship), and he could not even reach the final of the ranking tournament without a championship for a long time. Ding Junhui's age has also quietly reached the age of 35, which is the oldest player after Hong Kong's Fu Jiajun in this world championship (including qualifiers).
Ding Junhui's testimonial after losing to Wilson is quite meaningful: "I am not disappointed, I have many rounds to win, but I did not catch it. Karen (Wilson) played well. I will be with my family. It's easy to be a robot and always do the same thing. And now, I have more time to be myself. Fans can read something out of this passage.
Yan Bingtao once said to the Beiqing Daily reporter at the last domestic snooker national championship (which has not been held for more than two years due to the epidemic), "My brother Hui must grasp it, if you want to win the world championship for a few years, it will be more difficult in the future." It can be said that this is a more reliable prediction of a young junior and an absolute expert, because Xiao Yan, as an insider, knows the dynamics and competitive level of the players best. Now that time has passed a long time, and three more World Championships have been played, Ding Junhui is still hovering in the first round, and the situation is indeed not optimistic. Of course, Williams can still win the world championship at the age of 43, and veterans such as O'Sullivan and Higgins are still popular candidates to win the championship no matter when they participate, and compared with the "75 three masters", Ding Junhui is still young and not without hope. Only at least from the current point of view, if he wants to realize his dream of winning the World Championship, the difficulty is already very large, with the current ranking, he will have to participate in the qualification tournament, so that the threshold and challenge will become more and more difficult. Perhaps, China's snooker world championship really depends on other players and a new generation of players to achieve.
Then again, although this is another unsuccessful world championship trip, but the 14 ranking champions on the body, the British Championship, the Masters and other three major championships have also tasted, driving countless young people in China to invest in snooker sports, promoting the development and popularization of this competition in China, Ding Junhui in this sense, he will never lose the name and honor of "China's first brother". Whether it is Zhao Xintong, Yan Bingtao, or Zhou Yuelong, Lu Haotian, Lu Ning, many of the younger generation of golfers have grown up watching Ding Junhui's game, and have or still regard Ding Junhui as their idol.
Text/Beiqing Sports Liu Ailin