Ball – Bang takes “Rocket” from the Snooker League

China’s Pang Junxu, 22, ranked 53 in the world rankings, shone on Wednesday in another big surprise in the Champions League, competing in the 2022/23 World Snooker season, which runs until Friday, 29th of this month, in Leicester. . (England), by winning the first set in the second stage of the competition and knocking out the top-ranked in the hierarchy and seven-time world champion, 46-year-old England’s Ronnie O’Sullivan.

The “Rocket” started the day and the three matches in the worst way, crashing by a wide margin (0-3) against another Chinese prodigy, Yuan Sijun.

And after that, I actually had to win Bang Junxue – he’s considered a ‘rookie’ [novato] In 2021 – quickly found himself a 0-1 loser and sludge after 0-2, with the Asian player losing a maximum entry attempt (147 points): 1-3 for the Chinese, which was enough for a draw (2-2) in the Yuan Segun duel, After beating Ali Carter (3-0), to move to the third round, on Friday.

Ronnie O’Sullivan was useless to beat compatriot Ali Carter, 3-1, in the evening session: both of them already knew they had been eliminated beforehand.

At the Morningside Arena in Leicester, it was a new day for Chinese dominance: Five of the six finalists of the competition, on Friday, came from the giants of the East: Pang Junxu, but also now the only one in the ‘Top 10 in the world already has a place in the final stage of The competition, the UK championship champion, Zhao Xintong, aged 35, is sixth in the hierarchy.

If Pang Junxu wins Group A, on the same day The Cyclone (Xintong) wins Group D. Northern Irishman Mark Allen is just a formality (2-2).

Junxu and Xintong join Lu Ning (Group E), Xiao Guodong (Group H) and Liu Haotian (Group F) to complete a handful of Chinese among the six (out of eight) who have already qualified for the final round: England’s Stuart Bingham, the world champion in general 2015 and Group C winner, is the only exception to confirm the rule of Chinese dominance in the English Championship.

The latter two qualified for the final stage. Thursday 28. In Group G, England’s Sean Murphy (2005 world champion) and his compatriots Ricky Walden, Anthony Hamilton and Elliot Slessor participate in Morningside Arena. In Group Two, Belgium’s Luca Briselle, England’s Chris Wakelin, Welshman Jimmy Clarke and Daniel Wells discuss the other place in the eight on Friday.

The Champions League kicked off on June 28, and concludes on Friday, the 29th of this month, with the results of the arrangement and the distribution of prizes worth 328,000 pounds (390,000 euros), while the Englishman David Gilbert wins in 2021.