In the early morning of March 23, Beijing time, there was good news from the 2023 Snooker WST Classic, and "China's first brother" Ding Junhui officially locked the qualification for the tour championship. And this qualification benefited from the post-00s teenager Pang Junxu, who defeated taxi driver Gary Wilson 5-4 in the semifinals.
The WST Snooker Classic is the 13th ranking tournament of the 2022/23 World Snooker Tour. In this competition, Pang Junxu, a post-00s youngster ranked 46th in the world, joined hands with "China's first brother" Ding Junhui and other players to participate. Unfortunately, Ding Junhui lost to Xu Si 3-4 in the first round, and he had to wait for the help of his teammates to qualify for the tour tournament.
In the end, the young Pang Junxu completed this important task. After Trump was out of the third round, only Gary Wilson was able to take Ding Junhui's tour ticket. But in the semifinals, the young Pang Junxu successfully blocked Gary Wilson.
In fact, Cao Yupeng once played this role in the third round. However, he lost three consecutive sets with a 3-1 lead and was reversed 3-4. In this match between Cao Yupeng and Wilson, Cao Yupeng won two consecutive games 78-70, 71-53, leading 2-0.
After his opponent made it 1-2, Cao Yupeng won with a single 50+ and won the match point 3-1. In desperate circumstances, Wilson shot a break and a 50+ to score three consecutive games before staging a 4-3 comeback.
After a 4-3 victory over Cao Yupeng, Gary Wilson went from strength to strength, and in the fourth round and quarter-finals, the taxi driver went from strength to strength, defeating David Grace and Lucas Clax in succession to advance to the semi-finals and face Pang Junxu.
In this semifinal, Wilson won the match point 4-3 after the seventh game, and in desperation, Pang Junxu won two consecutive games to reverse 5-4 to advance to the final, while helping Ding Junhui retain his place in the Tour Championship. In the championship match, Pang Junxu's opponent is 4-time world champion Mark Selby.