On April 21, China's snooker star Ding Junhui lost 8-10 to the world's fifth Karen Wilson in the first round of the World Championships, and was out of the first round of the World Championships for two consecutive years. After the race, Ding Junhui accepted an exclusive interview with Sailing Olympic champion Xu Lijia, and had an in-depth chat on the competition and many topics other than the competition, the following is the main content of the interview:
Xu Lijia: Xiaohui, do you think that the opponent played particularly well today, or did you play well enough?
Ding Junhui: Sometimes the game can not say that they are not playing well at all, both sides have a chance, but his ability to grasp the opportunity will be better later, I also have two sets of opportunities behind me that I did not play well, and there may be some deviations in the key position, resulting in the next ball not being scored. I think he did a very good job today, I did it myself, I have been insisting, anyway, it feels like completing the task.
Xu Lijia: Speaking of your opponents, the last time they fought was in Gibraltar, right? Is there any special preparation before the World Championships?
Ding Junhui: No, he is quite comprehensive, there is a defense and a far platform has the ability to surround the ball, this long-term system is mainly to look at their long-term concentration, the ability to maintain the state, not to look at the opponent...
Xu Lijia: So now that you are hitting the age of 30+, you can train for an average of several hours a day?
Ding Junhui: There will be four or five hours a day, basically practicing on their own, sometimes fighting with children from other colleges, but not a lot.
Xu Lijia: I heard that you have set up your own Ding Junhui Snooker Academy here since 19 years, so let's introduce it to us, because many friends in China are not very clear.
Ding Junhui: We finished the renovation in July 2019 because there are so many Chinese players here, and everyone is more scattered, so I want to get a bigger venue, and then get a better environment, so that everyone can train together, organize them all, so that there is no need to worry about finding a venue.
Xu Lijia: How many players are here now?
Ding Junhui: There are more than 20, and there are quite a lot of them, almost every year there will be one or two new players, and then more and more.
Xu Lijia: Your current wish, in addition to playing the game to achieve good results, or do you quite hope to have this inheritance?
Ding Junhui: After all, there are still many British players, at least 80% of them are British players, so it is not easy to produce results. Recently, like Fan Zhengyi and Xiao Tong, and Yan Bingtao, they have won several championships, so there will be more Chinese players who can win the competition next. Some players are still young, sixteen or seventeen years old, don't give them this kind of pressure too early, they still need many years to compete to learn experience, including insisting on training, will definitely produce results.
Xu Lijia: How much time and energy will this academy probably take you?
Ding Junhui: Because the academy is not completely organized by myself, I will not care about some trivial things, I am basically a player in the academy, and I go home from training every day.
Xu Lijia: You are also the director of the Overseas Competition Committee, hahaha.
Ding Junhui: Oh, the director of the British players, anyway, everyone jokes about calling me director director, I am sometimes embarrassed.
Xu Lijia: Have your family been here with you lately?
Ding Junhui: Right, right, they came at the beginning of the year.
Xu Lijia: I remember you once said that playing ball is the happiest, and everything else is troublesome! Is being a dad a troublesome thing or a happy thing?
Ding Junhui: Being a father is very happy, at least for the time being, it is happier than playing ball, of course, it is happier when I win, so my family is still relatively separate from the game.
Xu Lijia: Fingers crossed your fingers and started playing professional competitions in 2003, this year is already 20 years old, where do you think your biggest progress and change in technology and mentality is?
Ding Junhui: The technology is definitely much better than before, the mentality is also good and bad, the main experience may be better, but I am now playing more inclined to attack, so I don't want to play by myself (too conservative), that is, the playing style is biased towards a faster pace, biased towards offense, I don't like to grind with people, there is no meaning, and then I will go in, and if I don't enter, you will go up and play anyway.
Xu Lijia: I still remember you said that snooker's professional league is actually quite devastating, sometimes you have to cover your head when you are not in good shape and do not want to play, what is the situation at this World Championship?
Ding Junhui: Of course, I want to play, I work very hard to get into the main game, and today I am also trying to win. Some other games are really (a little bit out of mind)... Maybe we can only deal with billiards because of the epidemic, so there are no more other aspects... It's a mind-to-heart game, and there's nothing else for us to do. Maybe sometimes I will be tired, this kind of frequent games are crowded together, I think it is not good, good is that if you keep winning, it is actually the best, then some players do not win if they are not much better.
Xu Lijia: The last question is to give to those friends in China who are still protesting this area, especially in Shanghai, is there anything to send to the general public to encourage and encourage them to get out of the epidemic as soon as possible.
Ding Junhui: The epidemic is not easy for everyone, the domestic control is more strict, so try to be patient and patient, I hope that the epidemic will pass as soon as possible, there are many and many things happening in the epidemic, so take care of yourself, take care of everyone, take care of each other, and then I also hope that the domestic game can be resumed as soon as possible, we players actually like to return to the country to play, so I am also looking forward to it.
Xu Lijia: Thank you, Xiaohui!
Note: The content of the dialogue is only extracted from the key parts of the interview, and the oral written language is appropriate, and the complete and original content should be paid attention to the Xu Lijia Weibo platform.