On the morning of April 27, Beijing time, a 1/4 final of the 2023 World Snooker Championship involving Chinese fans ended at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, and the only remaining Chinese player Si Jia Hui won 13-12 on aggregate in the third stage match against Scottish player McGill and reached the final four with his head held high. Under the age of 21, Si Jia Hui became the third Chinese player to reach the last four of the World Championship after Fu Jiajun and Ding Junhui, and the youngest. Not only that, but Scarlett is also the only qualifier to reach the semi-finals of the World Championships this century. At a time when the World Federation is holding hearings, the future of China's 10 banned players is uncertain, and China's snooker sport has suffered a serious blow, Sijiahui's outstanding performance at this World Championship is like injecting a dose of strength into Chinese snooker in the trough.
In the previous three meetings between Scarstard and McGill, Scarfia won completely. However, those three meetings were all short games, with a maximum of 9 rounds and 5 matches, and 25 long games, which was the real competition that tested the skills and perseverance of both sides. The two entered the third stage with an 8-8 scoreline. McGill came in first, taking an 11-9 lead, followed by Scarfarer taking over the game to win three consecutive games to take the match point 12-11. After being chased to a 12-draw by his opponent, the young Scarlet showed good psychological qualities, and several times in the tiebreaker through extremely difficult shots. McGill repeatedly failed to stump Jia Jia Hui with snooker, and eventually the Chinese boy reached the semi-finals of the World Championship for the first time, the first time a player has done it in this century. Looking at Cruzburg's history, only Griffith in 1979 (who won the championship) and Hicks in 1995 (who reached the semifinals) can match this achievement.
It can be said that Sijiahui created the biggest surprise of the Chinese Legion of this World Championship. As a debut player ranked only 80th in the world before the start of the tournament, he reached the final four not only to significantly improve his ranking (he had risen to 55th after the last round), but also to set his best ranking result, while also winning a grand prize of 100,000 pounds (about 860,000 yuan). In the history of Chinese snooker, only Fu Jiajun and Ding Junhui have ever reached the semifinals of the World Championships in 2006 and 2016, and Ding Junhui reached the semifinals of the World Championships twice in 2011 and 2016. Scarlet equaled his predecessors and set a record for the youngest. Ding Junhui and Fu Jiajun were 24 and 28 years old when they first reached the semifinals, while Si Jia Fai only turned 21 in July this year.
Scarfart first turned professional in 2019 but was relegated two years later. Last season, Scarlet came off the bench as an amateur and defeated Murphy in the opening round of the British Championship. This season, Scarlett returned professionally with the WSF Championship title. After another victory over Murphy in the first round of the World Championships, the latter said after the match that Si Jiahui would become the first Chinese player to win the World Championship.
Although he ranked the lowest (80th) and youngest (under 21) of the 32 players who participated in the main tournament of the World Championship, this does not prevent Scarlet from becoming the biggest dark horse. In the 1/4 final, Scarlet played a comeback show in Cruzburg for the second time, this strong psychological quality, not at all like a world championship rookie, you know, this is his first time to experience 25 games.
Originally, in this World Championship, because the four young Chinese players who reached the main stage for the first time were all post-00s, the opponents in the first round were all high-seeded opponents. Most Chinese fans still put their hopes of breaking through the first round on the 36-year-old Ding Junhui. After Ding Junhui's defeat, only Si Jiahui remained in Cruzburg. He not only eliminated world champion Murphy, but also defeated Milkins by a relatively large margin in the second round, and defeated McGill in the 1/4 final, and the figure of Chinese players in the final four has not disappeared, which is a huge encouragement to the Chinese snooker army and even the Chinese snooker movement, which is currently in a trough.
"I was so surprised to get to the final four, and I was even surprised to get into Noh Cruzburg, I just studied hard, not just wanted to win. From the beginning of the qualifiers, my emotions were calm and calm. I used the game as training and tried to enjoy Crucible. This shows that this young man from Zhuji, Zhejiang Province has an excellent mentality. At the same time, Jia Hui also sees his characteristics and weaknesses very clearly, he summed himself up this way: "The only thing I can compete with these world masters is the attack, because my safety ball is the worst of the 32 players who participated in the main game. "Knowing oneself and knowing oneself, attacking with a long and short point, and having a relaxed mentality, this is why Si Jia Hui has been able to fight until now.
Jia Hui's next opponent in the semifinals is the Belgian "bullet" Brecel, who eliminated O'Sullivan, and perhaps Si Jia Hui can continue to move forward, equaling or even surpassing Ding Junhui's best record of Chinese players in the World Championship (runner-up in 2016). In the 33-round semi-finals, the challenge was unprecedented for the youngster, and the opportunity was unprecedented.
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Liu Ailin