In the early morning of April 27, Beijing time, the 23/24 Snooker World Championship continued the second round of competition. Chinese teenager Si Jiahui fell behind 2-6 in the first stage, recovered two games in the second stage, and ended the second period with a total score of 7-9. David Gilbert defeated Robert Milkins 13-4 to become the first player to advance to the quarterfinals.
Si Jiahui
Chinese teenager Si Jiahui ushered in the quarterfinals against Wales' Jack Jones. Last year's World Championships Si Jiahui and Jack Jones were Crucible's brightest new stars, both reaching the top 8 in their debuts, and it was also the first time since 1988 that two Crucible debutants reached the top 8 of the World Championships, and Si Jiahui reached the semifinals. In this year's World Championships, Si Jiahui defeated Mark Williams 10-9, and Jack Jones defeated Zhang Anda 10-4 to meet in the quarterfinals.
Jack Jones
The two sides have met 3 times before, with the Welsh winning 2-1, and this is the third time the two sides have met this season - at the 2023 Snooker Wuhan Open, the Chinese teenager advanced with a score of 5-4, and at the 2023 Snooker International Championship, Jones won with a score of 6-4. This match is the first three-stage long-game contest between the two.
In the first stage, Si Jiahui hit 5 shots of 50+ (50, 64, 62, 84, 53), and Jack Jones shot 2 shots of 50+ (66, 71). After the opening, Jones achieved a reversal in two consecutive games, and then Si Jiahui scored 62 points and 84 points in a single stroke to win two games in a row, and Jones won four games in a row after the break, and at the end of the first stage, Si Jiahui temporarily fell behind Jack Jones with a score of 2-6.
At the beginning of the second stage, in the ninth game, Si Jiahui relied on accuracy of 83-1 to take the lead. In the tenth game, Si Jiahui was once again reversed by the opponent 68-66 in a single game when he was close to overscoping. In the eleventh game, Si Jiahui was in the lead, the cue ball was not well controlled, and he made a forced offensive error, which was reversed by the opponent 72-43. In the twelfth game, Si Jiahui pulled back a game 70-48. At the end of the first half, Si Jiahui entered the halftime break 4-8.
After the break, although Si Jiahui made a lot of defensive mistakes, he still pulled back a game 70-13. In the fourteenth game, Si Jiahui won another game 61-35. In the fifteenth game, the offense of both sides was fragmented, and Jones finally won 73-21. In the sixteenth game, both sides made key mistakes and exchanged big gifts, but Si Jiahui seized the opportunity to win 68-41. At the end of the second stage, Si Jiahui fell behind his opponent 7-9. The third stage of the match between the two sides will be played at 21:30 tonight.
Throughout the first two stages of the game, the firepower of both sides was not very open, none of them broke 100, the offense was not smooth enough, and the game was fragmented. Si Jiahui has been reversed many times in a single game, mainly because the cue ball control is relatively amateurish, the defense is poor, and the continuous offensive ability is not enough, and the score is inevitable. I hope that in the third stage, Si Jiahui can improve and turn the tide!
The first quarter-final match of the World Championships was played between David Gilbert and Robert Milkins in the English derby. In the first stage, Gilbert led Milkins 5-3, and after the opening of the second period, Gilbert was full of firepower, and as of the second stage, Gilbert shot a total of two shots to break 100 (136, 123) and six shots of 50+ (50, 51, 89, 64, 67, 84), and at the end of the second stage, Gilbert led Milkins with a score of 12-4 and was one step away from advancement. At the start of the third period, Gilbert relied on a multi-shot attack to win 67-0 to win 13-4 and become the first player to advance to the quarterfinals.