Snooker German Masters: Si Jiahui enters the semifinals Fan Zheng has a clean sheet, and Xiaote has beaten the wizard in a row

On the morning of February 3, Beijing time, the 2024 Snooker German Masters ended the fifth day of the competition, producing four semi-final seats. Two Chinese players played, Si Jiahui advanced to the semifinals, and Fan Zhengyi lost.

1. Late game: Si Jiahui beat Ryan Day 5-1 to reach the semi-finals for the first time of the season, and Higgins lost 2-5 to Xiaote

At 9 p.m., Si Jiahui came on the court to play against Ryan Day. In the first game, after the two sides made a mistake in and out, Ryan Day won. After that, Ryan Day was still inaccurate, and Si Jiahui gradually played an offensive touch, with a single stroke of 52, 96, and 72, winning 3 games in a row, leading 3-1.

After a short break, in the 5th game, under the chaos, Si Jiahui passed the ball and scored 75 points in one stroke, 4-1 to the match point. In the 6th game, Ryan Dai missed the ball on the long platform, and after Si Jiahui scored 73 points, he lost the red ball that completely locked the victory, and the table exceeded 6 points at this time. After Ryan Day started chasing points, the first shot of snooker, Si Jiahui missed the ball and sent a free ball; Then, Si Jiahui's cue ball fell into the bag and sent a great opportunity to turn the tables, but Ryan Day lost it again, and Si Jiahui finally scored the pink ball, won 5 games in a row, and won the game 5-1.

Although there are still obvious shortcomings in defense, the result is still worth a little celebration. After last year's World Championships, Si Jiahui reached the semifinals of the ranking tournament for the second time in his career.

At the same time, Higgins and Trump (Trump) are playing. The two are old rivals. Xiaote started with a single stroke of 71, Higgins played a single stroke of 80+ in the second game, and in the third game, after a single stroke of 50+, he solved the ball and fainted into the super score, 2-1. But after that, Higgins didn't win a game.

Xiaote hit 3 consecutive shots of 60+, won 3 games in a row, and reached the match point 4-2. In the 5th game, Xiaote reversed in a single game, and in the 6th game, Higgins was good at flipping through the bag, but he made a mistake on the simple ball. In the 7th game, Xiaote seized Higgins' mistake and started for the second time, winning the game with a single stroke of 40+ and 5-2.

Compared with the bad last season, Lao Zhang's state has improved greatly this season, and he often reached the top 16 and top 8 in ranking matches, and also scored 3 times in the semifinals (including two losses to Xiaote), but he just couldn't enter the finals. At present, Lao Zhang holds a record that is difficult for future generations to surpass, that is, the top 16 in the world for 29 consecutive seasons, and this record is in danger of ending after this year's World Championships.

2. Early Morning Session: Fan Zhengyi was beaten by Brother Yi to clean up, and Craigie beat Carter 5-1

In the early hours of the morning, Fan Zhengyi played against his brother Kyren Wilson. In the quarterfinals, the four players in the bottom half of the tournament did not have tickets to the Players Championship, and everyone was desperate to get more points in Germany, and even won the championship directly to get tickets.

Brother Yu broke 100 at the beginning, then scored 50+ in two shots, and won many times in the 4th game, one 4-0. After the short break, the situation did not change, Brother Yu grabbed Fan Zhengyi's long platform mistake, started for the second time, ended the game with 55 points in one stroke, and sealed Fan Zhengyi.

In the other game, Sam Craigie performed well, hitting a 100-shot break, plus 4 shots of 50+, and defeated the defending champion Carter 5-1, which was an upset, but not too unexpected. This is Craigie's first semi-final appearance in a regular season ranking tournament. However, Craigie finished third in the 2021 World Pro Series.

3. Draw and schedule

Tonight is the two semi-finals.

9 p.m.: Brother Yu vs Si Jiahui. The two have played each other 5 times before, and after Si Jiahui lost 4 in a row, he only won in a single-game limited-time tournament this season. In any case, Si Jiahui must have a chance, it depends on the accuracy of the play. Now Si Jiahui's confidence is still good.

3 a.m. the next day: Trump v Craigie. The two have played each other 4 times before, and they are evenly matched, with Craigie once sweeping Xiaote 5-0. So in this game, Xiao Te still has to be careful if he wants to pass the test. If Craigie reaches the final, this year's Players Championship will give away a new ticket, and Zhou Yuelong will be in danger.