The first round of the 2024 World Snooker Championship is in full swing, and 6 people have been decided for the top 16 places. Among them, 2 Grand Slam winners all successfully qualified. It is regrettable that the Chinese army is unfavorable, and Zhang Anda and Lu Haotian both suffered a round of tours.
Round of 16 finalists:
David Gilbert 10-9 Luca Brecel
Stephen Maguire 10-7 Ali Carter
Tom Forde 10-6 Ricky Wharton
贾德·特鲁姆普10-5候赛因·瓦菲
Jack Jones 10-4 Anda
Shaun Murphy 10-5 Lu Haotian
It is worth mentioning that the Grand Slam winners, Trump and Murphy, all successfully qualified. Among them, Trump hit 5 single-stroke 50+ strokes all over the field, and his excellent form made the British comfortable and advanced strongly. Trump is the 2011-2012 British Championship champion (10-8 Mark Allen), the 2018-2019 Snooker Masters champion (10-4 O'Sullivan) and the World Championship champion (10-8 Higgins) and the 2022-2023 Snooker Masters champion (10-8 Mark Williams).
This season, Trump won two ranking tournaments in the German Masters and the World Open, bringing his career ranking titles to 28, tying Steve Davis's record. Now, Trump will also attack his second world championship title.
Another Grand Slam winner, Shaun Murphy, also played well, with Murphy facing China's Lu Haotian, who had met three times before, with Shaun Murphy leading 2-1. In this encounter, after the fierce competition between the two sides reached 3-3, Murphy began to gradually control the rhythm of the game, although Lu Haotian blasted the highest single score of 117 points in the game, but still failed to save the situation. In the end, Shaun Murphy scored 81 points in a single stroke in the 15th game and won directly with a clean sheet, 10-5 to advance to the round of 16.
Previously, Chinese player Zhang Anda lost 4-10 to Jack Jones, so far, two Chinese players have been out. Now, everyone expects Ding Junhui to turn the tide. In the round of 16, Ding Junhui's opponent was Lisowski, the two had played each other 3 times before, and Ding Junhui won all of them. In the 2023-2024 season, Ding Junhui has recovered his form, not only advancing to the final of the British Championship for the fifth time, but also defeating Shaun Murphy 5-3, ending his 11-year winless record against the latter, and defeating Neil Robertson 6-5 to enter the final of the Snooker World Open. Although he failed to win the final championship, with his outstanding performance, Ding Junhui's world ranking also returned to the TOP16 ranks.
The competition between the two will start on April 23, Beijing time, looking forward to Ding Junhui's wonderful performance!