In the World Snooker Tour, Ding Junhui has always been a legendary existence. He not only changed Chinese snooker, but also pushed the sport to new heights.
Although his current form is not very ideal, objectively speaking, he is still difficult for other Chinese players to match and surpass. Even for many Chinese players, Ding Junhui is a difficult opponent to defeat, including the powerful Xiao Guodong.
Although Xiao Guodong has played against Chinese brother Ding Junhui nine times in his career, he has lost eight of them. In fact, he lost all but the first encounter. Therefore, Ding Junhui is still his most difficult nemesis to defeat.
Ding Junhui is still ahead of Xiao Guodong in the head-to-head record
In the past meetings between Ding Junhui and Xiao Guodong, Ding Junhui has won 8 times in 9 matches, which gives him an absolute advantage. In the first round of the 2009 China Open, Xiao Guodong defeated Ding Junhui 5–3.
But then, Ding Junhui completed his revenge with a 4-3 performance on the 2011 European Tour. Ding then defeated Xiao Guodong 10-6 in the 2013 Shanghai Masters final, and swept Xiao 5-0 at the 2017 World Open.
In the following game, Ding Junhui completely prevailed. He defeated Xiao Guodong 6-2 at the 2018 China Open and 10-3 at the 2018 World Championships.
After beating Xiao Guodong 6-4 at the 2018 British Championship, beating Xiao Guodong 5-4 at the 2019 German Masters, and sweeping Xiao Guodong 6-1 at the 2019 National Championship, Ding Junhui completed an eight-game winning streak against China's Xiao Guodong.
Ding Junhui's comprehensive strength is obviously better than Xiao Guodong
Although Ding Junhui's current competitive state is not particularly good, objectively speaking, it is still extremely difficult for Xiao Guodong to defeat him in the game. Among the current Chinese players, Ding Junhui's comprehensive ability is definitely the strongest existence.
Whether it is ball control or defensive level, Ding Junhui can occupy a place in the World Snooker Tour. But Xiao Guodong does not have such strength, in fact, Xiao Guodong's comprehensive ability is relatively average, there is no particularly outstanding place, but the comprehensive ability is relatively balanced.
Under such circumstances, Xiao Guodong suffered a great loss when facing Ding Junhui. You know, Ding Junhui only has the shortcoming of unstable accuracy in the far platform, and other abilities are very good. Once Ding Junhui plays long-range accuracy, Xiao Guodong can only become a background emperor in the game, not to mention that Ding Junhui also has excellent control ability.
Ding Junhui is still Xiao Guodong's most difficult nemesis
As China's first brother, Ding Junhui has remained China's best player in the past year, as evidenced by one championship and one runner-up and ninth in a single season. In terms of achievements, Xiao Guodong naturally cannot be compared with Ding Junhui.
At the same time, the performances of the two players in the confrontation can also prove it. Although Xiao Guodong has become more mature in his playing style as he gets older, his relatively poor offense and slightly insufficient ability to seize opportunities still limit him from going further.
After the 2013 Shanghai Masters final, Xiao Guodong never achieved any decent results again. Although his results on the professional circuit are still relatively stable, objectively speaking, it is difficult to go further with his current performance.
At present, the state of Ding Junhui, the first brother of China, is in a real upward period, and in this case, it will become more difficult for Xiao Guodong to win. So Ding Junhui is still Xiao Guodong's most difficult nemesis, after all, the optimism gap between the two people is there.