Wizard: Rockets are learning, Ding Junhui needs to break the shackles and change himself, he is busy with social activities and delayed his grades.
Ding Junhui took a plane to the Uk on August 4 for the upcoming British Open qualifiers. His first-round opponent is Little Lanes, who has improved slightly in recent seasons. According to well-known domestic media people, the latter believes that it is not difficult for him to defeat Ding Junhui as long as he plays normally. Apparently, Little Lanes did not take the former top superstar and 14-ranked champion Ding Junhui in his eyes. However, 4 Jie World Championship champion John Higgins believes that Ding Junhui is still the flagship figure among China's snooker players. His historical status cannot be surpassed by China's rising stars, including Zhao Xintong and Yan Bingtao.
Higgins said in the "Snooker Super Talk" program that Ding Junhui's contribution to China's snooker is the same as That of Canadian player Samben, Malta's Drago and Australia's Neil Robertson. They all each promoted snooker for their own country in their own era.
Although Ding Junhui has won only one ranking championship trophy in five seasons since defeating Karen Wilson at the end of September 2017 (defeated Maguire in the 2019 British Championship final), Higgins still regards him as China's best player and has enough reason to believe that he can return to normal track as soon as possible.
He believes that Ding Junhui has experience, solid basic skills, and strong comprehensive ability, except for the shortcomings of the attack interruption caused by too much pursuit of perfection in the process of clearing the stage, he hardly has any shortcomings. Of course, in recent years, in the downturn, his weak performance in terms of psychological quality has gradually emerged. At his peak, Ding Junhui had no need to worry about psychological quality, because strong self-confidence and accurate shooting efficiency could ignore these problems.
On the issue of Ding Junhui's downturn, Higgins and Hendry agreed with Hendry's previous views. Both believe that Ding Junhui's serious decline in status is related to his flawless training as a public figure who has participated in too many social activities. In addition, Higgins also believes that Ding Junhui's "self-imposed" also limits his own development. He can't always be static, always play the same way he hits the ball, he should constantly innovate his skills in order to find the best way for him at different ages. Even O'Sullivan and Davis have been learning throughout their long careers. They are always trying to find new batting skills to adapt to the increasingly competitive arena.