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Snooker UK Championship: Ding Junhui advances to the quarterfinals and looks forward to a “great game” with O’Sullivan
China News Agency, Beijing, November 18th. The most anticipated “Ding Ao War” by Chinese Taiwan fans is about to be staged-in the quarter-finals of the 2022 British Snooker Championship, the “No. 1 Brother” of Chinese billiards and the British Championship 3 times For the 30th time, Wang Ding Junhui will face the “big brother” of world snooker, the seven-time world champion O’Sullivan.
On the morning of the 18th, Beijing time, after the end of the 2022 Snooker Championship, the 4 rounds of 1/8 finals, “China’s only seedling” Ding Junhui defeated Welsh player Jamie Clarke 6:1 and successfully advanced to the top 8.
Ding Junhui and Clark had only once played against each other in the German Masters in 2015, when Ding Junhui won 5:1. But in this year’s British Championships, Clark strongly eliminated the “golden left hand” Mark Williams, who ranked No. 6 in the world, in the 1/16 finals, which made Chinese fans sweat for Ding Junhui.
By the start of the game, Ding Junhui’s unstoppable performance dispelled the fans’ worries. He led 4:0 in the first 4 games. Although Clark regained 1 point in the 5th game, Ding Junhui firmly controlled the game situation, and finally easily advanced 6:1, joining the “old rival” O’Sullivan in the quarter-finals.
In the other three games of the day, No. 13 seed Murphy reversed and defeated No. 4 seed Trump 6:5; No. 12 seed Lisovsky defeated Iranian player Hussein Vafi 6:2; England Veteran Joe Perry knocked out No. 14 seed Bingham 6-3.
So far, all the top 8 players of this British Championship have been produced. The quarter-final matchup situation is: Ding Junhui VS O’Sullivan, Mark Allen VS Sam Craigie, Joe Perry VS Tom Ford, Lisso Fowski VS Murphy.
The battle between Ding Junhui and “Rocket” O’Sullivan was the 30th encounter between the two sides. In the previous 29 matches, O’Sullivan had an absolute advantage with 21 wins, 3 draws and 5 losses. Ding Junhui suffered a 7-game losing streak in nearly 7 confrontations in the past 3 years. But Ding Junhui’s latest victory over O’Sullivan was at the British Championships three years ago.
In the 1/8 finals of the 2019 British Championships, Ding Junhui eliminated the “Rocket” 6:4, and finally won the third championship of the event and the 14th ranking championship of his career. Now returning to the “Blessed Land”, Ding Junhui has shown his best state and performance since the 2019 British Championships.
After successfully advancing to the top 8, Ding Junhui said that he himself “can’t wait to play against O’Sullivan, and want to see what will happen after I do my best in the game.” He believes that O’Sullivan is the best player in the world and this will be a “very great game”.