Ding Junhui luckily cleared the second round of the Welsh Open

The 2019 Welsh Snooker Open ended the second round of contention in Cardiff on February 13, China’s top player Ding Junhui defeated England’s Rice 4:3, and Zhang Anda upset last year’s 4:2. World Championship champion Mark Williams.

Facing the 106th ranked Les, Ding Junhui did not perform as much as he should. He fell behind by 2:3 at one time. In the sixth game, he narrowly defeated his opponent until he scored the last black ball and tied the score to 3:3. In the deciding game, he scored 72 points on a single stroke and was defeated and advanced to the top 32.

Ding Junhui won the championship of this event in 2012 and was runner-up in 2014. His opponent in the next round is 44-year-old Joe Perry. The two have faced each other 20 times before, and Ding Junhui has 14 wins and 6 losses.

Zhang Anda, ranked 81st in the world, defeated the second-ranked “Golden Left” Williams, which is the biggest upset since the start of the game. After the game, Williams, who won the World Championships for the third time last year, said: “He played a lot better than me. I wonder why his ranking is so low.”

This is the second consecutive loss to a Chinese player for Williams recently. In the first round of the World Grand Prix last week, he lost to Chinese teenager Yuan Sijun.

Another Chinese player who advanced to the third round was Zhao Xintong, who defeated his teammate Zhou Yuelong 4:0.

Fu Jiajun, Liang Wenbo, Mei Xiwen, Xu Si and Zhang Jiankang failed to pass the second round.

This year’s Welsh Open championship prize is 70,000 pounds (approximately RMB 616,000), and the final will be held on the 17th.