With Zhou Yuelong's 6-4 victory over O'Sullivan, the Snooker UK Championship report: Last 16 decided, China holds 7 spots

On December 2nd Beijing time, the first round of the main event at the Snooker UK Championship ended completely. The Chinese team fielded two players that day, securing one win and one loss. Lei Peifan suffered a heavy 2-6 defeat against the formidable Selby early on, whereas Zhou Yuelong shocked everyone by knocking out the world’s best player O'Sullivan 6-4. Consequently, the round of 16 is now set, with seven Chinese players progressing and five seeds unexpectedly eliminated. Overall, our results are very encouraging!

Lei Peifan faced Selby. In this match, Lei challenged four-time World Champion Selby, who dominated Lei with his superior skill. Under normal circumstances, Selby would easily crush Lei and advance. That’s exactly what happened: Selby started aggressively, showing fierce attacking power by scoring a century break and three 50+ breaks, quickly reaching a 5-0 lead and securing the match point, practically ending the contest. Lei’s chance to turn it around was nearly impossible, but he still managed two 60+ breaks to narrow the score to 2-5 and avoid a complete blowout. In the eighth frame, Selby steadily secured an 86-45 win, defeating Lei 6-2 to advance to the last 16. This was the expected outcome, as Selby’s strength was overwhelming and Lei’s ability insufficient!

Zhou Yuelong played against the Rocket O'Sullivan. Facing the daunting O'Sullivan, against whom he had lost seven consecutive times before, Zhou started strong, winning two frames in a fierce battle to lead 2-0. Then O'Sullivan regained his attacking rhythm, launching a 3-1 comeback to level at 3-3. In the following frames, Zhou showed great composure and staged a remarkable comeback, producing a 3-1 scoring run to defeat O'Sullivan 6-4. This marked Zhou’s first career victory over the Rocket, a significant breakthrough. It seems O'Sullivan is indeed aging, losing focus with three frames reversed against him and making various mistakes in the deciders!

With Zhou Yuelong advancing, seven Chinese players have reached the last 16 in this tournament, nearly occupying half of the spots, which indicates an improvement in our overall quality. The other six players are Si Jiahui, Zhao Xintong, Xu Si, Ding Junhui, Zhang Anda, and Pang Junxu. As for the seeded players, only five were upset in the first round: O'Sullivan, Mark Allen, Gary Wilson, Kyren Wilson, and Xiao Guodong. Seeded players still performed strongly, and we look forward to the start of the round of 16!

Written by / Sports Novel