Although the number of appearances this new season is not much, O'Sullivan's sideburns of white hair seem to be more eye-catching than before, of course, he is still very lucky, born in the United Kingdom, a country where middle-aged men may be more popular than prostatitis, he at least retains a thick hair, no less than his thick chest hair. And his two old guys are much more miserable, and now higgins and Mark Williams have a combined hair volume, and it is difficult to say whether there is an ordinary person or not. Obviously, the players born in the 70s are aging, even if Barry Hawkins, who is a small character, looks so full of vicissitudes.
So have you ever wondered what Paul Hunter, born in 1978, would have been like when he was over 40 years old if he were still alive? How about his delicate facial features with obvious wrinkles? Is he willing to keep his gray blonde hair long? He is so smelly and beautiful, will he become the most enthusiastic molecule in the snooker industry for botulinum toxin and hyaluronic acid? But Heaven doesn't seem to want us to see that pretty face grow old, so thirteen years ago today (October 9), Paul Hunt's beautiful and young face became eternal.
No one knew the face better than Hunter's widow, Lindsay Phil, who had known each other since 1997, when Hunter had just been a snooker pro for two years, 18 years old, with a face full of collagen, and although he looked like a prince, he would also be infected with some marijuana. I never like to use the words "David Beckham", in my opinion he is much more handsome than Xiaobei, I believe Lindsay will think so.
Soon after, in January 1998, Hunter won his first snooker ranking tournament at the Newport Centre in Newport, Wales, where he defeated steve Davis, Nigel Bond, McManus and John Higgins, the last three of whom were still active in the professional arena after 20 years. The £60,000 prize money was a huge sum of money for a young man under the age of 20 in the '90s, I only know that Hunter's total prize money in the previous two seasons was less than $50,000.
However, Lindsay's entry into Hunter's life did not make his career path stable, Hunter was revenge by Higgins in the semi-finals of the next season's British Championships, which was his best result of the season, and the next 99-00 season, he did not even have any bright performance, even if he was already in the top 16 in the world. In 2001, when Hunter reached the Welsh Open final again, he was stifled 9-2 by Dahdi.
Then Lindsay decided to sacrifice a big move for his man's career, and then there was the final of the Masters and O'Brien that year, she and Hunter used the gap between the games to reverse the trend of the game, from 2-6 to 10-9, the second stage of the four-time single shot break, Paul Hunter also opened the most worthwhile Master Tournament 4 years 3 crowns, three reversals, three 10-9 legends. Of course, he also repaid the "RP", in these four seasons, the only time he failed to win the Masters championship, but he played the best of his career at the World Championships, reaching the semi-finals, but unfortunately was reversed by Dahdi.
The story ends with a supporting role belonging to Ronnie O'Sullivan, who in 2004 became O'Brien and Williams' third background character. Soon after, at the Scottish Open (the year was called the Players Championship), O'Sullivan lost to Paul Hunt again, and in that tournament, Hunter was also stabbed by Davis, Dahdi, and Ding Junhui, who had just turned 17, but Hunter eventually lost to Jimmy White and finished second, which was the last time in his career to reach the final. In the same month, in the second round of the World Championships at the end of the season, Hunter, who once led 10-6, was frantically counterattacked by his best friend Matthew Stevens, losing the game 12-13, and he still failed to achieve a bigger breakthrough in Crucible.
Of course, this can't be changed at the time, Hunter's complete life winner, in May he and Lindsay finished the wedding in Jamaica, there must be someone jealous of this bride, her husband is easy-going, handsome and successful, is one of the best snooker players in the world, "Lindsay saved half the world in his life." 」 However, this was not the case, and the happy married life that belonged to Lindsay lasted less than a year, and the disaster that followed caught everyone off guard.
In early 2005, Hunter gradually began to have some abdominal pain, and it became more and more serious, at first they thought it was appendicitis, but after examination, there was no problem with his appendix, the problem was six cysts in the lower abdomen, which were determined to be malignant and required chemotherapy. Can you feel the feeling of the sky suddenly collapsing, Paul Hunt was so scared that he didn't dare to say too much in the hospital at that time, until he and Lindsay came home, and then plucked up the courage to ask his wife whether he had cancer, and guess how much he wanted to hear "no" from Lindsay's mouth, but it backfired, Lindsay said "yes" and reassured that everything would be fine.
According to Lindsay, the two once watched a TV show that there would be one cancer patient in every three people, and Hunter joked to her that he would be one of them, the one of the three. This is a fucking disgusting but accurate prophecy.
Soon after, Hunter traveled to China to participate in that year's China Open, the one where Ding Junhui became famous. He finished in the top eight in this tournament and was once again beaten by Dahdi by a big score. However, presumably the results were not the most important thing in Hunter's mind at that time, and he flew back to England after the race and met with a cancer expert with Lindsay. "Two possibilities, either germ tissue tumors on the testicles, have a 90% cure chance, and the other is endocrine cancer, with a cure rate of only about 30%."
Perhaps in the past twenty years, God has been too preferential to Paul Hunter, this time, it chose "thirty percent". The disease does not usually appear until after the age of 60 and is uncommon, and cancer cells develop from the neuroendocrine system and continue to grow. The next paragraph of description, perhaps just looking at the text can make you feel uncomfortable - after another careful examination, the doctor believes that Hunter's tumors are far more than the six mentioned earlier, but as many as two hundred, densely entangled together, forming a terrible tumor mass.
Hunter and Lindsay are in a panic, but he still has to leave them behind for the time being, because the World Championships are coming again. This time he lost more "sloppily", and although he scored two single-shot breaks, he still lost to his friend Michael Holt in the first round. That's when he announced that he had cancer, so even if he lost, he walked out of the arena with encouraging applause. Before the final of this tournament, Hunter also called Matthew Stevens, who reached the final of the World Championship for the second time in his career, Hunter encouraged him to go back to the championship trophy this time, but Matthew did not get Hunter as he wished, he lost the final, and achieved the young Sean Murphy.
Fate's teasing of Hunter seems to be getting more and more energetic, ending the short world championship trip, Hunter is planned to undergo the first course of chemotherapy, but at this moment, Lindsay found out that she was pregnant, and when her husband needed the most care, she had to start planning for the fetus in her womb, which really added a lot of trouble to Lindsay, but at the same time, they also regarded the child as the dawn of life.
In the early stage of receiving chemotherapy, although Hunter had to endure pain that ordinary people could not understand, his heart was still strong, and because he could not get rid of the pain caused by the anti-hair loss hat, he even took the initiative to ask to cut off the long hair that had accompanied him for many years. Chemotherapy made him very different, his face was puffy, his teeth were infected, and he had difficulty falling asleep. The good news is that the AFP index used to judge the degree of cancer is constantly declining, and after four courses of treatment, AFP has dropped from the initial 2400 to 1300, and then to 590, 34, 18, and he is no more than 5 meters away from the normal person.
Of course, the side effects of chemotherapy are also growing strongly, hunter began to vomit constantly, the eye sockets were sunken, and the limb movements became no longer flexible, especially the hands that played the ball. Without hair, people also look a lot older, a year ago was still so handsome young man, at this time can not help but be sad to see. Lindsay decided to accompany Hunter on a vacation to Rhode Island, hoping to ease her husband's depressed mood for a time, and naturally the unborn child in her belly was accompanied by them.
However, at the end of the short vacation, with the bad news falling from the sky, Hunter's cancer cells once again grew rapidly, even more serious than before chemotherapy, and he had to undergo a large number of new drugs for chemotherapy, because the body was already resistant. It almost brought the couple down, and Hunter was agonizing over it, and he felt desperate. Since September 2005, when he had to undergo treatment every three weeks, he had become struggling to walk, without hair and even his eyelashes began to fall out. Paul Hunt, on the other hand, returned to the field in October.
In that year's British Championship, he defeated Jamie Burnett 9-8 in the round of 32 to win the last victory of his career, in order to insist on the game he had to take off his shoes to move his feet to ensure blood circulation, but he still lost to Ding Junhui 2-9 in the round of 16. Half a month later, just after Christmas, his daughter Evie Rose was born, and in the midst of endless pain, Hunter felt a sense of relief that his life was extended. He spent the last comfortable week of his life with Lindsay and the newborn, until a week later he was informed that the chemotherapy could be stopped because it was no longer working.
He has played in several ranking tournaments since then, but it has become difficult to even stand, and it is better to win, but even at this point, he still smiles often on the field, still a charming stinky brother. He played 15 innings at that year's World Championship against Neil Robertson, losing 5-10, the most heart-wrenching defeat in snooker history, and his last appearance on the field.
In April of that year, he re-received chemotherapy, still unable to stop the crazy growth of cancer cells, Lindsay is still trying to find some home remedies for him, hoping for some miracles or something, but Hunter probably has understood that he can't defeat the disease. He was getting weaker and weaker, his abdomen began to swell, he couldn't take care of himself, he couldn't sleep more than an hour, and the most terrible thing was that due to the pain in his whole body, he gradually couldn't even bear a comforting hug. In that offseason, probably everyone who cared about snooker couldn't avoid the topic of how long Paul Hunter could stay with us.
Finally, at 19:52 on October 9, 2006, God let go of the man who had been tortured beyond belief, and he lay in Kirkwood Hospital in Huddersfield, stopped breathing, and left forever. He has reversed many major games in his life, but unfortunately he has not been able to reverse his life this time. Five more days was supposed to be his 28th birthday, but he didn't wait.
There are still many pictures of Hunter's funeral that can help us remember, with thousands of mourners coming to pay Paul Hunter on his last journey, including his wife, father and daughter under the age of one. Of course, there were also those opponents who had confronted or cared for him, Stevens, who was responsible for carrying the coffin, Jimmy White, who was the first to come to the funeral site, Dahdi, who won many of his key battles, Davis and Hendry, the snooker banner Davis and Hendry, the still young Higgins and Williams, the younger Murphy and Robertson, and O'Sullivan, who came later than everyone else, but must be afraid to face this scene, and so on. Such a strong squad of players is gathered together, but it is full of sadness.
Where we can still see Paul Hunter's name today:
The Paul Hunt Charitable Foundation, created in his honor, which helps disadvantaged, sick or disabled teenagers with the opportunity to learn snooker;
The Paul Hunt Foundation designates April 25 as "Paul Hunt Day";
Paul Hunt's most brilliant masters, the trophy was named "Paul Hunter Cup";
Paul Hunter won the First Year's Fitz Challenge, which was later named the "Paul Hunt Classic";
……
It took thirteen years to feel that this arrangement was probably to remember only paul Hunter's handsome appearance when he was young, and he never grew old.