Counting those things about the World Grand Prix
The Snooker World Grand Prix is in full swing. Looking back on the first five game days, from veterans to Mesozoic to rookies, each has its own excitement.
Post 70s: old trees bloom
There are 10 “post-70s” finalists this time. Considering that the World Grand Prix only opens its doors to the top 32 this season, the overall stability of the “post-70s” can be seen.
“75 Sanjie” played together. O’Sullivan, who made his debut after the British Championships last year, sent away Gilbert and his friend Liang Wenbo in the first two rounds with two 4-3s. “Rocket” has a multi-shot performance, but it feels a little rusty. In the quarter-finals, facing another 70-year-old Dortmund who is in good shape recently, the Rockets failed to go further.
Compared with the slightly plain performance, O’Sullivan’s post-match speech made fans talk more about it, such as the following sentence:
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I have played on a fair table for 6 weeks, and now I have to get used to it when I return to a high-quality table.
Speaking of Dortmund, this is his second consecutive week to the semi-finals of the rankings after the German Masters last week. This time he went one step further and eliminated “Mr. 147” Ford.
Mark Williams was troubled by gout and had to wear slippers to play. In the first round, he still defeated Hawkins, but facing Robertson, who was in a state of improvement recently, “Golden Left” was powerless in this left-handed battle.
The steady Higgins “took class” again, especially the 4-1 defeat of Zhao Xintong in the second round, which seems to remind people of the scene of the contest between Higgins and Trump many years ago.
“Post-80s”: Unexpectedly
The “80 Five Tigers” almost monopolized all the ranking championships this season, but when they came to Cheltenham, the “Five Tigers” were overturned one after another. Murphy, Selby and Ding Junhui staged a collective tour: Ding Junhui was sacked by Donaldson for the third consecutive week. The score of 0-4 is a portrayal of Xiaoding’s weakness; Murphy was reversed by “post-70s” Stevens , Selby was beaten by Xiao Guodong, who was also the “post-80s”. With the big favorite Trump, the second round was eliminated by the “old enemy” Karen Wilson. Robertson became the last hope of the “80s Five Tigers”, and he continued his recent popularity as he swept all the way.
The “post-80s” who took the lead in grabbing tickets to the top four are Fude… I didn’t expect it. He defeated three consecutive “post-80s” on the road to promotion: Maguire, Celtic and Gary Wilson. Snooker’s “post-80s” are not only those five people.
“Post-90s”: the battle for name rectification
Wilson is the leader of the “post-90s”, but he has been repeatedly reversed recently, making everyone almost forget that he also has a nickname called “Warrior.”
In the first round, he and another representative of the “post-90s” came to the absolute home court for Lisovsky for a PK. Like the Masters, the “little driver” won the first two games, but Wilson won.
A war of words in the fall of 2018 made people regard Trump and Wilson as their old enemies. But after that, the two took very different trajectories. When Wilson 3-1 was chased into a 3 tie and lost a simple blue ball in the deciding game, people thought that the familiar script would be staged again, but as Trump also made mistakes, Wilson won an important victory. Next, Wilson eliminated Trump’s “master” Higgins after a fierce battle of more than four hours. In Cheltenham, Wilson proved himself worthy of the nickname “Warrior”
In addition, Donaldson is also a member of the “post-90s”.
“After 00”: the future can be expected
Yan Bingtao is the only “post-00” in this competition. The Riga Masters champion and the semi-finals of the British Championships and other strong performances allowed him to qualify for the 8th seed. He had just recovered from a waist injury, and he felt a little rusty. He lost 2-4 in the Chinese derby with Zhao Xintong.
By the way, as the youngest player in this game, Yan Bingtao is 26 years younger than the oldest Joe Perry. It is said that billiards is a sport suitable for all ages.
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