Ding Junhui hit 147 but a round of tours, and the million-dollar jackpot in the lottery season! At present, only two Chinese people have a chance
On the evening of January 8, the 2024 Snooker Masters continued the first round of competition, and in a key battle, Chinese star Ding Junhui and England's seven-circle Grand Slam legend "Rocket" O'Sullivan started the 33rd "Ding Olympics" showdown. Although Ding Junhui chased three games in a row and scored a full score of 147 in the 7th game when he fell behind 0-4 in the opening game, he finally lost with a big score of 3-6, suffered a round of tours, and missed the top 8. However, for Ding Junhui, playing 147 again after 8 years can be described as another breakthrough.
Once upon a time, at the Masters, one of Ding Junhui's three major tournaments, the scenery was unlimited. In the 2007 Masters, at the age of 19 years and 288 days, Ding Junhui scored his first career score of 147 points! won the Masters championship for the first time in 2011, which was an amazing stroke on Ding Junhui's road to fame. But in recent seasons, Ding Junhui has once again fallen into a career trough, not only has he not made achievements in the ranking competition, but the championship drought has been as long as 4 years. The world rankings have fallen out of the top 16 several times before, and the Masters has missed the tournament for two consecutive years. This season, he reached the final of the British Championships, returned to the top 16 at the last moment, and returned to the Masters after three years.
But what is narrow is that Ding Junhui's opponent in the first round of the Masters is O'Sullivan's opponent in the final of the British Championship. This tough battle has been foreshadowed since Ding Junhui's defeat in the final of the British Championships, even if in the past month, the two came to China again, played two exhibition matches, and won one victory each, but there are some factors of sophistication in it. For Ding Junhui, if he wants to achieve a breakthrough, he still needs to gnaw hard bones on his old opponent.
In the first round of the 2024 Masters, Ding Junhui lost four games in a row at the beginning, which can be described as a sinkhole situation, which once made people think of being "whipped six times in a row" and defeated miserably. Unexpectedly, when he came back from halftime, Ding Junhui won three games in a row, and also played a cool moment with a perfect score of 147 in the seventh game. It's a pity that in the next two games, O'Sullivan won with one shot, which directly ended the suspense of the game. But for Ding Junhui, in the Masters, he once again scored a full score of 147, which can be described as another historic breakthrough.
As early as 2016, Ding Junhui had already scored 6 out of 147, ranking among the top five in history. But I didn't expect that in the next 8 years, Ding Junhui actually missed 147 until this Masters. You must know that in the history of the Masters, there are only 4 strokes of 147 in total, but Ding Junhui has 2 of them, which can be described as a highlight. At present, Ding Junhui's total of 147 has come to 7 strokes, ranking seventh in history, second only to Trump and Murphy's 8 strokes.
In fact, after the start of the season, the official announcement of the incentive mechanism for 147. If one person can hit 2 strokes of 147 in the three major tournaments in a single season, he will receive a grand prize of 147,000 pounds, about 1.35 million yuan. With the end of the British Championship and the progress of the Masters, there are already two "draws", and both are Chinese players.
Previously, at the British Championships, Chinese player Xu Si played the first shot of his career 147 against his teammate Ma Hailong in the second round of the qualifying round, becoming the first person who is expected to hit the big prize. And now, Ding Junhui scored 147 in the Masters, becoming the second place. If Xu Si or Ding Junhui hit another 147 at the World Championships at the end of the season, the million grand prize will be in the bag.