On April 24, the first round of the 2024 World Snooker Championship continued at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England, where the No. 7 seed, Chinese star Ding Junhui faced off against England's Lisowski. Ding Junhui fell behind 4-5 in the first stage, and once fell behind 7-9 in the second stage, although he stubbornly chased two match points in a row and dragged the game into a tiebreaker, but in the end he was killed, resulting in a big score of 9-10 loss, and the World Championships suffered a round for four consecutive years.
In another year of the World Championships, Ding Junhui, who has never been involved in the World Championships, once again embarked on the journey of Crucible to the championship. China's overall performance rebounded this season, and the world ranking returned to the top 16, and even ranked in the top eight, allowing him to play as the No. 7 seed at the World Championships. In the first round of the draw, Ding Junhui had poor luck and drew the top seed in the qualifying tournament, the former world top 16 star Lisowski, and a tough battle was inevitable.
Although in the past record, Ding Junhui won all three battles, and all of them won by a large margin. However, in the past four seasons, the two have never played each other, so for the long-game World Championships, the game situation and results have also become a big suspense. In addition, before Ding Junhui's game, the other four Chinese players who participated in this year's World Championships have decided the results, and only Si Jiahui won alone, he defeated the three-time champion Williams 10-9, while Zhang Anda, Lu Haotian and Pang Junxu all regretted losing out.
In the first 9 rounds of the two-game game, Ding Junhui broke 100 at the beginning, with a single stroke of 127 points and a clean sheet, and then a single stroke of 60 points and the next game. However, after that, Lisowski scored 71 points from Donner and 91 points in a single stroke to tie 2-2 and enter the halftime break. After that, Ding Junhui scored 98 points and 90 points in a single stroke again, and the little driver won three games, and finally Ding Junhui temporarily fell behind 4-5. Throughout the first stage, Ding Junhui's far platform attack accuracy declined, resulting in his offensive coherence being blocked, while Lisowski had a good ability to grasp opportunities, so he had an advantage in the score.
In the second stage of the decisive battle, Ding Junhui came up with a single stroke of 74 points to equalize the big score, and then Lisowski scored 52 points and 63 points in a single stroke, continuing to lead two games. In the 13th game, Ding Junhui scored 84 points in a single stroke, thus falling behind 6-7 and entering the halftime break. At the restart, Lisowski beat Ding Junhui 2-1 and took the lead 9-7 to get a match point opportunity. In the 17th game, Ding Junhui, who had no way out, seized Lisowski's mistake and scored 56 points in a single stroke to get back a match point.
In the 18th game, Ding Junhui seized the opportunity again, started offensively, played steadily, and blasted out the second personal shot of the game to break 100, clearing the table with 131 points in a single stroke, winning two games in a row to pull back two match points, and dragging the game into the decisive game. In the 19th game, Ding Junhui missed the opportunity to kick off, Lisowski scored from afar, although there was a mistake after 38 points in a single stroke, but Ding Junhui missed the opportunity again in defense, and Lisowski scored from afar, directly completed the super score, thus locking the win, defeating Ding Junhui 10-9 and advancing to the round of 16.
With Ding Junhui's exit, there have been as many as 7 seeded players in the World Championships this year, and Ding Junhui has been in the first round of the World Championships for four consecutive years. Since 2021, they have lost to Bingham, Kyren Wilson, Wafai, and this year's Lisowski. So far, after the first round of the Chinese Army, only Si Jiahui is left alone in the top 16 of the five.