Snooker provisional world rankings: Ding Junhui rises to seventh, Si Jiahui drops out of top sixteen, Xiao and Zhao also decline.

On October 12th Beijing time, the Snooker Xi’an Classic has entered the semifinal battles, with all Chinese competitors knocked out and the championship claimed by a foreign player. The provisional rankings have been revised with major shifts. Because of Si Jiahui’s underperformance, he dropped out of the top sixteen. Thus, only four Chinese players are left in the top sixteen: Ding Junhui, Xiao Guodong, Zhao Xintong, and Zhang Anda!

Ding Junhui showed a rare good form in this tournament, benefiting from the home advantage and relatively weak opponents, successfully advancing to the quarterfinals. However, in the quarterfinals, he faced the recently red-hot nemesis Murphy, who has been unstoppable lately, having just won the UK Open and then sweeping through Xi’an. In the last 16, Murphy crushed world number two Kyren Wilson 5-0 without conceding a single frame. Ding was tied 1-1 but then lost three straight frames to Murphy’s flawless play, falling behind 1-4. In the fifth frame, Ding produced three excellent snookers but still came up short, visibly frustrated. Starting the sixth frame, Ding calmed down and fought back with two consecutive frame wins, narrowing the score to 3-4. However, in the eighth frame, Ding missed a crucial bottom-pocket shot, gifting Murphy the opportunity to close out the match with a winning break, eliminating Ding 5-3 and advancing to the semifinals. As a result, Ding’s tournament ended in the quarterfinals, but he earned £22,350 in prize money and climbed one spot in the world rankings to seventh, remaining the highest-ranked Chinese player. Murphy’s semifinal advancement also boosted him up one place to eleventh in the rankings!

Zhao Xintong disappointed again in this event, losing to veteran Milkins and exiting early. Since winning the World Championship, Zhao has failed to achieve good results in any tournament, consistently exiting early and disappointing fans. Although he remains in the top sixteen, his ranking dropped one place to twelfth. Zhang Anda’s ranking stayed steady at fourteenth. Si Jiahui also performed poorly, exiting early in Xi’an after losing to Welshman Wilson, dropping out of the top sixteen and being overtaken by Gary Wilson!

Written by / Sports Fiction

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