Jia Hui's reaching the semifinals of the World Championships is like a bright light, dispelling some of the haze that has recently shrouded Chinese snooker, allowing snooker to become the focus of public attention in a positive way. For Scarfar, it was a dreamlike journey. However, from the macro perspective of Chinese snooker, the birth of a talented young player is an almost inevitable accident. Thanks to Jia Hui, this time point was born at the 2023 World Championships.
After Scarstar's victory over McGill to reach the semifinals of the World Championships, it was difficult to list the significance of this victory in the first place, because Scarfi's historical record was so many. Even in the most concise way, there are three paragraphs:
World No. 80 Scarlet became the lowest-ranked semifinalist at the World Championships, following a previous record at Murphy (No. 48) in 2005. After reaching the semifinals, Scarstar's provisional ranking soared to 36th; If it reaches the final, it is expected to move up to 19th place; If it wins, it is expected to rise to about 5th place.
This season is Scarlett's first season since returning professional, not relegation. Scarlett's points will only increase next season... In this case, it seems that it is only a matter of time before Scarlet enters the TOP32, and it is not completely impossible to enter the TOP16 at a speed that equals the historical record.
Si Jia Hui became the third Chinese player to reach the semifinals of the World Championships since Fu Jiajun and Ding Junhui. Since the World Championships began in 1982 with a 32-man main tournament, Scarlet is tied with Andy Hicks in 1995 as the best rookie in Cruzburg. At 20 years and 290 days, Scarlet became the fourth youngest World Championship semifinalist in history after Jimmy White (20 years 9 days), Hendry (20 years 103) and O'Sullivan (20 years 149).
The moment Scarlet stepped into the single table of Cruzburg, it can be described as a timely manna for today's Chinese snooker industry. In the past, Chinese snooker was clearly not in the best shape - leader Ding Junhui fell silent again after reaching the final of the British Championship, and this year experienced five consecutive defeats in ranking matches, although he went straight to Cruzburg as a thrilling seed, but lost to Wafi in the first round, suffering a round for three consecutive years.
Even more frustrating, since the end of last year, a total of 10 Chinese players have been implicated in gambling-related incidents and have been temporarily suspended, including two young leaders with high hopes - Zhao Xintong and Yan Bingtao. At present, the "match-fixing case" hearings of the 10 temporarily suspended players are being held, and the final results are not expected until early June.
Si Jiahui's stunning performance at the World Championships seemed to be like a bright light, dispelling some of the haze that recently shrouded Chinese snooker. While you can't fool yourself into saying that this achievement wiped out all the negative issues, it did put snooker back in the spotlight in a positive way.
10-9 Murphy, 13-7 Milkins, 13-12 McGill, Scarfart was not the more favored side in all three victories, but he managed to reach the semifinals with near-incomprehensible accuracy. It is true that many problems have been exposed during this period, such as low defensive quality, lack of savvy game strategy, etc., but these things do not need to be the focus during this tournament.
Even though there are no worries about the future, both Scarlett and the fans have a reason to simply enjoy the joy of victory during the World Championships. Offensive talent often determines a player's ceiling, and Scarlet is only 20 years old, and there is time to solve defensive problems in the future. What's more, from the post-match interview, Si Jiahui's cognition of his own weaknesses and the management of game expectations are obviously several times stronger than many pouring cold water enthusiasts who claim to "know the ball".
Looking at the World Championships alone, for Si Jiahui, this is a dreamlike miracle journey, a rare chance event in ten years. However, if we look at the development of Chinese snooker in recent years from a macro perspective, it seems that this scene is also inevitable.
"Billiards Don't Make a Noise" published an article three years ago (February 2020) titled "
After talking about snooker for so many years, it seems that this clear dividing point has finally appeared!
. At that time, the description of the four age groups of snooker in the text was: the aging of the post-70s, the strength of the post-80s, the discontinuity of the post-90s, and the opportunities of the post-00s.
That judgment seems particularly clear three years later. "75 Sanjie" were collectively absent from the Players' Championship and Tour Championship this season, and no ranking tournament winners were recorded, and all stopped before the semi-finals of the World Championship; The post-80s divided the championships of a series of important tournaments, including the Masters, the British Championship, and the Players Series; The 90s Wilson and Brecel won the European Masters and Champions League at the start of the season, but had few bright moments for the rest of the season.
For the post-00s, the "ultra-long standby" of the post-70s has entered the end; Although the post-80s generation is powerful, a gap that lasts for more than ten years makes the post-80s destined to become the "lifelong enemy" of the post-00s; The post-90s, who should have been in front of the 00s, are obviously limited by the times.
Thousands of sails on the side of the sinking boat, ten thousand wood spring in front of the sick tree, the post-00 players will surely become a happy generation. After observing the structural distribution of today's post-00s players, it is not difficult to find that the Chinese Legion has a great trend. Even without using complex analysis methods, simply listing the names of young players from China and abroad this season is almost immediately visible.
Chinese post-95 player
Zhao Xintong - 1997, Yan Bingtao - 2000, Zhou Yuelong - 1998, Peng Yisong - 2001, Pang Junxu - 2000, Xu Si - 1998, Zhang Health - 1998, Chen Zifan - 1995, Wu Yize - 2003, Lv Haotian - 1997, Lei Peifan - 2003, Yuan Sijun - 2000, Si Jiahui - 2002, Chang Bingyu - 2002, Bai Lanning - 2002, Fan Zhengyi - 2001
Foreign post-95 players
L. Heathcot - 1997, A. Ussenbach - 1996, L. Davis - 2006, J. Cahill - 1995, J. Leclerc, J. Kendrick - 2001, L. Clarks, D. Young - 2002, R. Muir - 1995, B. Mertens - 2004, D. Emery - 2001, A. Hill - 2002, A. Petrov - 1996, A. Kazakov - 2004
While most of the foreign post-00s players are still working hard for relegation, four Chinese post-00 players have already made their debuts in Cruzburg. If it weren't for the poor luck (Pang Junxu vs O'Sullivan, Wu Yize vs Robertson, Fan Zhengyi vs Allen, Si Jia Hui vs Murphy), we have every reason to expect to see more Chinese figures in the second round or even the 1/4 final.
The rise of China's post-00s players is starting at a slow but observable pace. From the macro perspective of Chinese snooker, under the dual guarantee of quantity and quality, the birth of a talented young player is almost an inevitable accident. Thanks to Jia Hui, this time point was born at the 2023 World Championships.