On January 14, 2023, Beijing time, the Snooker Welsh Open ended the qualifying match, and China's Zhou Yuelong defeated Wu Yize 0-4 and missed the main match. This season, Zhou Yuelong played well and reached the final of the ranking tournament, whether it is a single season ranking or a world ranking, Zhou Yuelong is second only to Ding Junhui, but this time he is in a slump, and was swept by 19-year-old Wu Yize, which is shocking.
The Welsh Open first played a qualifying round, with a total of 3 match days, and the Chinese players performed well in the first two days, Li Junwei, Yuan Sijun, Peng Yisong and Pang Junxu entered the main event, but Xu Si and Fan Zhengyi were out in the qualifying round. On matchday 3, 8 Chinese players came on the pitch with a 4-4 result, and the overall performance was unsatisfactory, with two derby matches showing more unexpected results.
In the first derby, Si Jia Hui shot two 59 points to sweep Xiao Guodong 4-0. In the second derby, Wu Yize scored a single 99 to sweep Zhou Yuelong 4-0, Wu Yize not only won four consecutive games, but also kept a clean sheet in two of them, which was indeed very good. This is obviously a big upset, as Zhou Yuelong has performed well this season, reaching the final of the ranking tournament and ranking 9th in a single season, second only to Ding Junhui among Chinese players, while Zhou Yuelong's world ranking is 27th, also second only to Ding Junhui.
It should be said that Zhou Yuelong is strong and experienced, but he was swept by 19-year-old Wu Yize, which is surprising. I have to say that Wu Yize, Si Jia Hui and other young generals have shown good potential, and there are people in Chinese snooker successors. Ding Junhui played well, sweeping Ashley Hegill 4-0 to secure a place in the main draw, while Cao Yupeng eliminated Scott Donaldson 4-1 and also advanced to the main event.
In addition to Zhou Yuelong and Xiao Guodong losing the derby, there are two Chinese players who lost in foreign battles, namely Wu Anyi and Lei Peifan. Women's player Anyi Wu scored 69 and 76 points, which were already excellent, but she lost 2-4 to Andy Hicks and unfortunately missed the main draw. Lei Pefan lost four consecutive games after winning the first game, and was reversed by Mitchell Mann, and also missed the main draw.
At this point, the Chinese players ended the qualifying competition, and 8 Chinese players entered the main round through the qualifying round, namely Li Junwei, Yuan Sijun, Peng Yisong, Pang Junxu, Wu Yize, Si Jiahui, Ding Junhui, Cao Yupeng. There are also several Chinese players who will play in the qualifying round during the main tournament, and as 10 Chinese players are banned by the World Taiwan Federation, the scale of Chinese snooker has shrunk, while Fan Zhengyi and Zhou Yuelong are both out of the qualifying round, requiring Ding Junhui to step up.
In addition to this, several celebrities won on this matchday, Ali Carter eliminated John Asteri 4-2, Martin Gould eliminated O'Brien 4-2, and Dominic Dale eliminated Ajab 4-1. The qualifying round is all over, there are not many unpopular overall, it can be said that it is unremarkable, I hope that the Chinese players will continue to work hard and achieve good results in the main competition!