In the first round of the 2024 World Snooker Championships, in a key battle, China's first brother Ding Junhui was defeated by Jack Lisowski in a single stroke breaking 100+ saving 2 match points. This was the first time in Ding's career that he lost to his opponent, and he also became the seventh big-seeded player to miss the round of 16.
Throughout the game, Ding Junhui was in a passive situation. In the first stage, although Ding Junhui scored a super high score of 1 single stroke breaking 100 + 3 strokes of 60+, the big score was still 4-5 behind. In the second stage, Ding Junhui once again scored 74 points and 84 points in a single stroke, but unfortunately he was tightly suppressed by Lisowski, with a big score of 6-7; at the last moment, Jack took the lead in getting the match point 9-7, however, Ding Junhui did not give up and resolved the crisis twice in a row. Unfortunately, the god of luck did not always favor. In the end, Ding Junhui still lost 9-10 and suffered a round of defeat in the World Championships for the fourth consecutive year.
It is worth mentioning that this is the first time in Ding Junhui's career that he lost to Lisowski. So far, Ding Junhui has rewritten the record between the two to 3 wins and 1 loss. The last time Ding Junhui advanced to the top 16 of the World Championships was back in the 2019-2020 season, in the first round, Ding Junhui 10-9 Mark King. His best result at the World Championships was a runner-up finish in the 2015-2016 season.
In addition to Ding Junhui, there are also 6 TOP16 seeded players who have suffered a round of travel at this season's World Championships. Include:
Luca Blaisser (4) 9-10 David Gilbert
Mark Selby (5) 6-10 Joe O'Connor
Mark Williams (8) 9-10 Si Jiahui
Ali Carter (9) 7-10 Maguire
Gary Wilson (10) Stuart Bingham
Anda Zhang (11) 4-10 Jack Jones
What's more worth mentioning is that Si Jiahui's ability to beat the three-time World Championship winner is also a big upset, and the two have met once in an exhibition match at the Macau Masters, with Mark Williams winning 6-3. This season, Mark Williams won both the Open Championship and the Tour Championship, increasing his career ranking title to 26th.
And Si Jiahui defeated Kyren Wilson 6-3 in the semifinals of the German Masters of Snooker to advance to the final, which is also the first time in his career that he has reached the final of a ranking tournament. It can be said that there is still a big gap between the two. Even, Mark Williams scored a high score of 142 points in a single stroke at the beginning, but Si Jiahui was not affected by the opponent's momentum. On the contrary, he became more and more courageous, and even took an 8-5 lead in the second stage with 4 consecutive whips.
In the end, Si Jiahui scored 77 points with a single shot and won the clean sheet, breaking into the top 16 of the World Championships for two consecutive years. He also became the only Chinese seed, and he will next compete with Jones for a place in the quarterfinals.