In the early morning of April 30, Beijing time, at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England, China's cutting-edge Si Jiahui, who was under 21 years old, failed to continue the good form in the previous rounds and the first half of the semifinals in the last stage of the 2023 World Snooker Championship, and was beaten 7-1 by Belgian "bullet" Brecel, losing 15-17 in the overall game, regretting that he failed to equal Ding Junhui's best record of the Chinese World Championship in 2016. Scarves' nearly three-week journey to the World Championships from the second round of qualifying came to an abrupt end, but the young Scarfa gained a lot from his first Cruzburg experience, reaching the semi-finals as a qualifier in his debut as a qualifier, a significant improvement in the ranking, and a prize of £100,000.
The semifinals of the World Championships are divided into four stages, each stage will be played in 8, 8, 8, 8 and 9 rounds, which is a 33-17 long game tiebreaker. Scarfa played 5-3 in the first stage, which not only did not allow Brecel to close the score, but gave his opponent another critical hit, the stage score was 6-2, and the big score was changed to 11-5. At this stage of the game, Scarlet fully demonstrated the characteristics of his rapid attacking firepower, repeatedly "extremely unreasonable" hitting the difficult and distant target ball into the bag, making the Belgian shake his head in his seat again and again and smile bitterly, and there was a gaffe to pick the cue ball out. These actions of Brecel can be understood as chagrin and frustration, and more incredulous: can this also be scored? That's no fun.
After winning three consecutive games to widen the game gap to 9 games, the "bullet" burst out the energy to win 7 consecutive games against O'Sullivan, and a wave of 5 consecutive wins at the end of this stage brought the score close to 10-14, and there was still suspense in the victory of the game. In the fourth stage, which began on the evening of the 29th, Brecel still felt hot, and at this time, the Chinese teenager began to show his shortcomings in doing safety globally, always showing flaws at the beginning of each game or entering the stalemate in the middle game, and the Belgian seized the opportunity to take the lead, and his advantage of accurate hitting could not be played. Brecel won six more games to reverse the score to 16-14 and take the match point first.
In the 31st game, Scarlet finally hit a single 91 to save a match point, but then a rash attack due to a lack of solidity allowed Brecel to take the opportunity to overscore. In the end, Scarlet was out 15-17 and failed to carry out the magic to the end. Brecel won 11 consecutive games across stages and turned around after trailing 9 sets 5-14, setting a world championship record that no one had ever done before at Cruzburg.
But against the world No. 80 against the world's No. 10 seeded World Championship player, Scarlet Fai did not fall behind in the slightest, and almost won the victory, which is definitely a defeat. The collapse he presented in the final stage was a lack of experience and a defect in skill. In the last eight games, Si Jiahui did not have many opportunities to play to his strengths, and was basically taken by his opponent when An Global left a flaw. In fact, Jia Hui has always seen his problems in this area very clearly, he once said, "Of all the 32 players who participated in the main game, I have the worst ability to be an Anglian player, and I can only make up for my attack." ”
The young man is very humble, but it must be affirmed that he already has considerable strength, and at a time when Ding Junhui is gradually weakened, Zhao Xintong and Yan Bingtao, two high-ranking players whose career prospects are uncertain, this young man from Zhejiang Zhuji is a figure who has the ability to raise the banner of the Chinese snooker legion. Looking back at the World Championship Scarfer's path to advance from the qualifying rounds, even if there is a lucky component, the technical and psychological components that support Scarlett's series of victories account for a greater proportion.
Having just returned to the profession this season and was ranked too low, Jia Hui had to play in the second round of the qualifying round, and it was a veritable five-level semi-final. If his debut defeat of Austrian player Florian Newsler is not yet famous, in the third qualifying round and the promotion round, Scarfa has begun to show his victory over German Masters runner-up Fudford and Welsh Open champion Jordan Brown. In his first season after returning professionally, he reached the main draw of the World Championship, and from the beginning of the main competition, he set a series of snooker records in individuals, the Chinese legion and even the world.
In the first round of the main event, Scarlett beat former World Championship champion Sean Murphy, and let the "white fat man" who had previously attacked his pride send some meaty praise: "Scarlet Fai will win the world championship sooner or later, maybe not this time, but sooner or later." "16 to 8, Scarlet won a big victory over veteran Milkins, who holds the ranking tournament title; 8 to 4, Jia Hui once again showed strong psychological quality and composure and calmness that did not match his age, playing 25 rounds to perform a decisive game again, knocking out the former World Championship semifinalist McGill 13-12.
At this point, Scarlet can match the World Championship semifinalist record of senior Fu Jiajun, who was 28 years old when he won this result, and the senior "Hui Ge" was 24 years old when he reached the semifinals of Cruzburg in 2011, and Si Jia Hui, who was less than 21 years old, was younger than all of them. World No. 80 Scarlet also became the lowest-ranked semifinalist at the World Championships, following a previous record in 2005 with Murphy (No. 48). At 20 years and 290 days, Scarlet is also the fourth youngest player in history to reach the semifinals of the World Championships, the first three are legends, namely the uncrowned king Jimmy White, the "Emperor of Billiards" Stephen Hendry, and the first man in history, Ronnie O'Sullivan.
After reaching the quarterfinals, Scarlet rose to 55th in the provisional ranking, and after reaching the semi-finals, the provisional ranking soared to 36th. In the upcoming new season, Si Jiahui's points will only increase but not fall, because this is not his relegation season, there will only be bonuses, the accumulation of points, and it is not difficult to officially rank into the TOP32 in one fell swoop, which is his personal glory and achievement.
And for Chinese snooker, now there is a great need for something full of positive energy to cheer me up and encourage me. The birth of Si Jia Hui is this very positive event. The appearance of a player who is extremely talented and talented, with great psychological qualities, who is quite mature and solid on the field, and even brilliant, comes at the right time. The innocence outside the arena, the aura in the arena, the demeanor of the generals and the courageous attack and fighting style can also re-make the international snooker community have a more positive and positive evaluation of Chinese players, and reshape the image of Chinese players.
Si Jia Hui said that the small goal he set for himself in his first year back in the professional arena was to "complete relegation and then reach the final four of a ranking tournament", and now he has completed his plans and tasks, and reached the semi-final four in the most important ranking tournament.
Scarlet is an extreme attacker, reminding fans of Trumpu when he first debuted, and it seems that he can score all difficult goals. But Scarlett's weakness is also obvious, as he himself said, there is still a lot of room for improvement and improvement in the handling of the cue ball and the handling of Anjiao. But you know, the young man is not yet 21 years old, and he still has a lot of time to polish himself. In any case, through this performance in Cruzburg, Jia Hui has achieved great success, allowing more people to know themselves and re-recognize the Chinese snooker movement.
Text/Beiqing Sports Liu Ailin