On the morning of July 28, Beijing time, the 2022-2023 World Snooker Champions League ended the second stage of the competition between Group A and Group D. Mainland players continued their previous promotion momentum, Pang Junxu and Zhao Xintong won two group tops respectively, and successfully broke into the top 8! So far, Chinese players have occupied a full 5 seats in this year's Champions League top 8 lineup.
A total of 7 players from the British Army of China Snooker Brigade have entered the second stage of this Champions League (Round of 32). The second stage still adopts the group single round robin format, with 32 players competing for qualification in 8 groups - Lu Ning, Lu Haotian and Xiao Guodong have successfully broken through in the first two days and occupied 3 seats in the third stage (round of 8).
Today, the second stage of the Group A and Group D competitions will have two Chinese players participating in the competition. Group A, Pang Junxu and Yuan Sijun, two rising stars, challenged the world's No. 1 O'Sullivan and "Captain" Carter; In Group D, Zhao Xintong and Chang Bingyu appeared hand in hand, competing with Mark Allen and Gary Wilson.
In the first round of Group A, Yuan Sijun came up to give the "Rockets" a downward spiral - Xiao Yuan scored a single shot of 74 points and 59 points successively, and won the opening red at 133-0; Subsequently, Yuan Sijun seized the opportunity of O'Sullivan's poor offensive form and won two or three consecutive sets 59-46 and 66 (single shot 64) to 34 consecutive games, with a total score of 3-0 to win the opening goal. Pang Junxu was also active, beating Carter 3-1 to lay a solid foundation for the final qualification.
In the second round of the group, O'Sullivan was hit by a chinese rising star again - Pang Junxu went down 54-42 ahead of the city, and then slammed a single shot 104 to win the second set; Although the Rockets won the third inning with 74 points, Pang soon scored 73 points in the fourth inning and again achieved a clean sheet, eventually giving O'Sullivan two consecutive defeats 3-1, announcing that the Rockets did not qualify for the quarterfinals. Yuan Sijun and Carter fought for four rounds, and the two sides shook hands 2-2 to make peace.
In the final round of Group A, Pang Junxu and Yuan Sijun played a 2-2 China derby, O'Sullivan defeated Carter 3-0 but it was too late, and finally Pang Junxu won 2 wins and 1 draw and accumulated 7 points to rank first in the group, Yuan Sijun was second with 1 win and 2 draws, O'Sullivan ranked 3rd, and Carter ranked at the bottom of the group.
Zhao Xintong is the world's highest-ranked Chinese snooker player, in today's Group D game, Zhao Xintong blasted out a high score of 145 and a single shot of 70 in the first round, and easily defeated Chang Bingyu 3-0 - single shot 145 is the highest score in this Champions League so far, and at the same time refreshed the highest score of Zhao Xintong's career. In a showdown between two foreign players, Gary Wilson beat Mark Allen 3-0 in the first round.
In the second round of Group D, Zhao Xintong's firepower was not reduced, and he blasted a single shot 123 points to send eggs in the first set, won 78-37 in the second set, and sent a clean sheet again with a single shot of 101 points in the third set, and the total score was 3-0 to win Gary Wilson. Chang Bingyu lost 1-3 to Allen and suffered two consecutive defeats. In the final round of the group, Zhao Xintong and Allen staged a wonderful top 16 strong dialogue, with each side having an over 100 and a 50+ offensive output, with a total score of 2-2 draw in the first game; Chang Bingyu fought hard for four sets, losing 1-3 to Wilson. In the end, Zhao Xintong scored 7 points to advance, Gary Wilson ranked 2nd with 6 points, and Allen ranked 3rd with 4 points.