The top 8 of the Snooker World Championship are released, and the average age of 40 has turned into a senior competition! O'Sullivan Higgins leads

Dingdong Sports

2024-04-30 11:14Posted in Beijing Sports Creators

In the early morning of April 30, the 2024 World Snooker Championship ended the last second round of competition at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. So far, the top 8 of this year's World Championships have all been released, led by O'Sullivan, Trump, Higgins, Bingham four former champions, in addition to Gilbert, Maguire, Kyren Wilson and Jack Jones and other 4 players.

Although as many as 5 members of the Chinese army participated in this year's World Championships, after the first round, 4 people, including Ding Junhui, were out, and Zhang Anda, who played as a seed for the first time, was upset, and Lu Haotian and Pang Junxu were both defeated. And Ding Junhui has been in the first round of the World Championships for four consecutive years, which can be described as quite bleak. Only Si Jiahui, in the first round of the backward situation, reversed the three-time champion Walesian Williams 10-9 and became the only player in China to advance. It's a pity that in the second round of facing the "dark horse" Jones, Si Jiahui lost 9-13 and unfortunately stopped, so far the Chinese players were wiped out, ending the journey of the 2024 World Championships.

In addition to the poor overall results of the Chinese players, as many as 8 seeded players in the first round of this year's World Championships were eliminated, which also tied the record for the most in history, including the defending champion and Belgian star Brecel in one round, and the "Crucible curse" continued. The favorites to win the championship, O'Sullivan, the world No. 1 and seven-time world champion, and Trump, who is ranked No. 1 this season, have all advanced strongly. Four-time champion Higgins became the last person to advance, and his battle with another favorite Allen was thrilling, Higgins once fell behind the match point 11-12, and the tiebreaker was 0-62 behind, and finally staged a single-game reversal, so as to complete the stunner 13-12 and advance to the top 8.

With the decision of the top 8 of this year's World Championships, we can see an interesting phenomenon, the two famous players of "753 Masterpieces" O'Sullivan and Higgins, are already 48-year-old veterans, and they are also the oldest of the qualifiers in this year's World Championships. The former champion Bingham is also 47 years old, while the Scottish star Maguire is 43 years old, England's Gilbert is 42 years old, Trump is 34 years old, and among the post-90s players, Kyren Wilson is 32 years old, and the dark horse Jones is 30 years old. In other words, there are no post-00 players in the top 8 of this year's World Championships. The average age of the top 8 squad has reached 40.5 years old, which is already the standard of the Snooker Veterans World Championship, and the Snooker World Championship has directly changed from the top 8 to the senior competition.

The phenomenon of aging snooker has been particularly obvious in recent years, especially O'Sullivan's "Treasure Knife is Not Old", which has achieved breakthroughs in ranking competitions one after another, and even including the British Championship and the Masters of the three major tournaments, which have opened the rhythm of the eighth Grand Slam. If he reaches the top again this year in Crucible, then he will become the first eight-time World Championship champion in history, and the first person in history to win the throne. Of course, Higgins is also a strong contender. The overall weakness of young players has also made snooker quite controversial, and how to attract more young audiences to pay attention to and love this sport may be a problem that managers need to think about.

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