When Scarlet stepped into the Final Four of Cruzburg, he suddenly had a lot more labels.
The first person to reach the semifinals of the World Championships for the first time since the beginning of this century, the second best result of the Chinese player in the World Championships, and the youngest Chinese player to reach the final four of the World Championships...
The young man, who only turned 21 in July this year, faced a wave of praise, but he was terribly calm. He said that my strength is actually not enough to reach the semifinals, and everyone should not treat me as a very powerful player like Ding Junhui.
His journey to the World Championship is not over, but his story with snooker is worth knowing. Whether it is an ordinary person or a genius, the 20-year-old Si Jia Hui finally ushered in his "April days on earth" this spring. And Chinese snooker, after a short haze, may also usher in a longer period of light.
1 Decision
Perhaps, the moment his parents opened a billiard hall in Hangzhou, they had already opened a door for Si Jiahui, who would embark on the road of billiards in the future.
He was originally a man of athletic talent. As a child, Si Jia Hui was an expert in skipping rope and kicking shuttles, and in the third grade, he was recruited to the school table tennis team and won a place in the competition in just one year.
I first came into contact with billiards in the fifth grade. Once, after school, he watched the adults fighting, and he went up and "stabbed twice" without holding back. His talent for billiards quickly showed, and in just a few months, he was able to complete the "one-shot clearance", and it was difficult to find opponents in the billiard hall.
In the summer of 2013, his father took Si Jiahui to Shanghai to participate in the billiards competition of the East China Primary School Students' Group, facing a group of peers who were much older than him, Si Jiahui passed the hurdle and finally won the runner-up. But Si Jia Hui cried after the game, he regretted missing the championship.
This kind of unyielding unyield, buried from the bottom of his heart, has also been in Si Jiahui's heart, accompanying him through ten years of practice.
After the competition, Si Jia Hui proposed to his parents that he wanted to take the career path. This means that he almost has to copy Ding Junhui's past - to take such an uncrowded road, to give up his studies, to invest years of financial resources and energy, in exchange for an unknown result. There is also a question, if Ding Junhui is a child prodigy, what about Si Jiahui?
For this decision, which countless ordinary families will find difficult, parents finally decide to support their children, even if it is a "terrible thing" in their eyes.
On August 30, my father went to talk to the teacher about the suspension of school; On September 4, the family set off from Hangzhou for Guangdong. Guangdong is the place with the strongest snooker atmosphere in China, Ding Junhui, Liang Wenbo... These familiar players are all there to temper and then reach higher heights. Now that he has embarked on this road, Si Jia Hui naturally hopes that he can do better.
There is also a detail, among the luggage he carried with him to Guangdong, there were also quilts ... Perhaps, making this decision, the teenager at that time did not even think of leaving too much back for himself.
2 Wait
It was a hard and boring time.
That's also the old road that Ding Junhui once walked - living in the most crowded room, eating the simplest meals, practicing from day to night, and also tutoring cultural classes, and insisting for several years... "Prodigy" has told you that only by staying up, only by perseverance can you exchange flowers and applause, so what other choice does Si Jia Hui have?
A few years later, Si Jia Hui met Ding Junhui.
It was at the 2016 Central Snooker Tour in Fuzhou, where the match between Si Jia Hui and Ding Junhui was placed in the final opening match. Ding Junhui won two games first, and then Si Jia Hui won four games in a row. At that time, many people did not know Si Jiahui's name, and could only call him "the post-00s little player who defeated Ding Junhui". In fact, he was only 13 years old.
He became famous at once. But he quickly calmed down, what can a victory prove? What's more, his more realistic goal is to go from amateur to professional, and beating Ding Junhui will only make him famous, but not make his dream come true. So, he went back to training day after day.
In 2019, Scarfai participated in the Q-School Tryouts, ranked first in the total points and obtained two seasons of professional qualification, officially advancing to become a world professional snooker player.
Two years later, the Gibraltar Open encountered Ding Junhui again. Si Jia Hui defeated Big Brother again with the same score.
That year, it was not a good year for Scarlett, and he suffered relegation. Scarlett, who can participate in many competitions as a substitute, has still created a lot of good results.
What he didn't know was that the day that belonged to him was coming.
3 Bloom
When it came to the World Championships, almost no one paid attention to Jia Hui.
The ranking of the 80th in the world seems to be a bit out of place with Cruzburg. As a Chinese fan, Ding Junhui's dream is expected to come true, and as for Si Jiahui and a few other young people, it may be like a short fireworks, and after one round, it may disappear.
Scarfai's opponent in the first round was the familiar Murphy.
Murphy's loss in the first round of the British Championship two years ago even made him a little angry: "He plays like a carefree person, without any pressure. It's unfair and wrong for professional players. Amateurs should not be allowed to compete in professional competitions. He is not qualified. ”
And this time, he subdued Murphy. After the match, Murphy said that Si Jiahui would become China's first world champion, maybe not this time, but believed he would be the first.
After that, Si Jia Hui continued his magic. Including the victory over Milkins, or stepping over McGill, although there are some stumbling, the performance is not so stable, and there will be mistakes, but after all, a young man who is only 20 years old can make his debut in Crucible today, until now, what else do you demand?
You know, including Fu Jiajun, Ding Junhui, and Yan Bingtao, their World Championship debuts are only the first round. And Scarlet has already created too much magic for us.
In the semifinals, his opponent was Brecel. This is an opponent with a similar style to Scarfai and is good at attacking. This time, Scarlet can completely put those distractions behind and have a good fight with Brecel. Walking here, every step he takes, for him, is writing a record.
Epilogue:
After advancing to the final four, Si Jia Hui has no regrets.
NextDing Junhui? In the face of such a comparison, he is still very sober: Don't compare me with Ding Junhui.
Compared to the rest of the Chinese Legion, his road to fame is far from early, and far from smooth. Waiting hard in the chase of his profession, playing a profession but being relegated, he could have been a shooting star in the Chinese snooker legion. But now, as these days pass, more and more people will know this name.
On the top stage of snooker, Jia Hui ushered in the most wonderful bloom in 20 years of his life. All the suffering may have been rewarded at this moment.
His rising not only injected light into the Chinese snooker in the gloom, but also gave the future leader of the Chinese Legion an additional choice.
Keep going, young man.