Ding Keeps China’s Clean Sweep Going
Ding Junhui scored a 4-2 victory over Oliver Lines in the qualifying round of the Cazoo British Open, a result which means that all nine Chinese players in action over the first two days in Wigan have won their matches.
Ding is looking to get back to his best this season following a dip in form in recent years – the most recent of his 14 ranking titles came in 2019. And the 35-year-old started strongly with a fine performance against Lines, making breaks of 51, 51, 81 and 128. He goes into the random draw for the last 64 of the world ranking event, with the final stages in Milton Keynes running from September 26 to October 2 (for ticket details click here).
So far, Chinese players have a perfect record in the qualifying round as Ding joins Lyu Haotian, Tian Pengfei, Lu Ning, Xu Si, Chen Zifan, Zhang Anda, Li Hang and Zhao Jianbo in reaching the second round.
Lu came through a fierce battle against Matthew Selt by a 4-3 scoreline. Selt led 2-1 and 3-2, making a 122 in frame three, but couldn’t take his chances in the decider. He missed the final blue to a centre pocket when trailing by nine points, and Lu slotted the blue into a baulk corner for victory.
Ian Burns made a 129 in a 4-1 defeat of Adam Duffy, while Lukas Kleckers made a superb 111 in the deciding frame to beat Allan Taylor 4-3.