Original title: Snooker World Championships: Si Jiahui advances to the semi-finals, the biggest “dark horse” of the World Championships
On the morning of the 27th, Beijing time, the quarter-finals of the 2023 World Snooker Championships ended in Sheffield, England. The Chinese teenager Si Jiahui, who was shortlisted for the World Championships for the first time, advanced to the semi-finals and became the biggest “dark horse” in this tournament.
Si Jiahui’s opponent in the quarter-finals this time is Scotland’s “post-90s” McGill. In the first two stages, the total score of the two sides was 8:8, and it was difficult to distinguish between them.
In the third stage in the early hours of the 27th, Beijing time, McGill took the lead and won 3 of the first 4 rounds, taking the lead with 11:9. At the critical moment, Si Jiahui broke out again, entered the match point first with 12:11 after winning three games in a row, and won the tiebreaker after McGill tied at 12:12, won with a total score of 13:12, and advanced to the halfway point. finals.
Si Jiahui, who is only 20 years old, was born in Zhuji City, Zhejiang Province. In the Fuzhou Station of the China Professional Snooker Tournament in 2016, when he was under 14 years old, he became famous because he defeated Ding Junhui, a famous Chinese billiard player at the time. In this year’s World Snooker Championships, he made it out of the qualifying rounds, entered the World Championships for the first time in his career, and became the only player among the five Chinese players who entered the main round to break into the top 16.
In the first two rounds of the race, Si Jiahui eliminated two seeded players Murphy and Milkins one after another, becoming the youngest top eight player in the World Championships in the past 25 years. After defeating McGill this time, he became the third Chinese player to reach the semi-finals of the World Championships after Fu Jiajun and Ding Junhui.
What is valuable is that, as the biggest “dark horse” of this World Championships, the young Si Jiahui still remains sober and calm. He said after the game that he was actually not enough to reach the semi-finals. This was not because he was not confident, but because of his perception of his own strength. In the future, he will still “play his own ball well”, but I hope that the outside world will not expect too much and “treat him as a very powerful player like Ding Junhui”.
“Actually, I have already played beyond the ordinary, and I should enjoy the game if I enter the semi-finals.” He said.
The other quarter-finals of the day was an upset. The seven-time champion of the world championship O’Sullivan, who led 10:6 in the first two stages, suddenly collapsed in the third stage and was defeated by the famous Belgian Brechel. , With a total score of 10:13, he was upset and missed the eighth championship of the World Championships. Brechel became Si Jiahui’s opponent in the semifinals.
In addition, Selby eliminated Higgins, who is also the four-time champion of the World Championships, 13:7, and became another semi-final opponent with Mark Allen who defeated Jack Jones.
The semi-finals of the 2023 World Snooker Championship will adopt a system of 17 wins in 33 rounds, divided into 4 stages. The battle between Si Jiahui and Brecher will be held in the evenings of the 27th and 28th, and the early morning and evening of the 29th, Beijing time respectively.