On March 23rd, the 2024 World Open Snooker Championship will see a semi-final match! At 2:00 pm Beijing time, defending champion Judd Trump will face “dark horse” Jackson Page; at 7:30 pm, Ding Junhui will face “Melbourne Machine” Neil Robertson at home.
The semifinals will be played in a 6 out of 11 format.
Semi-final 1: Trump vs Page March 23, 14:00
In the quarter-finals, Trump won three consecutive games after a 2-2 comeback, and finally beat Wilson 5-2 with a great snooker shot.
His opponent Jackson Page was even better, scoring 90, 140, 78, 76 and 87 in singles to also beat Slesser 5-2.
Trump is the defending champion of the event. He defeated Tachaiya in the final of the 2019 World Open at Monte Jade. He has already achieved remarkable results this season. Last year, he won back-to-back titles at the British Open, Wuhan Open and Northern Ireland Open. He also won the German Masters last month and is now looking for a fifth rankings Championship.
Jackson Page is ranked 53rd in the world. He exploded onto the scene this time at the World Open at Monte Jade, beating two top 16 players in Higgins and Selby. He had never before reached the round of 16.
The two have met three times before, with Trump eventually winning. This season, Trump has played in 74 tournaments, winning 82% of them! Cumulatively, he has 72 strokes over 100, the first of the season! That’s a totally overwhelming statistic for Page, but snooker is a sport that depends a lot on clinical play, and Page has been nothing less than Trump’s best in the tournament.
Semi-final 2: Ding Junhui vs Robertson March 23, 19:30
Ding Junhui brought a peak performance in the quarterfinals. He scored 73, 74, 135 and 102 in a single game. He also rolled over twice in a single game, won five games in a row and beat Hussein Wafi 5-0.
Robertson’s single scores today were 127, 87, 87, 115 and 79 after his three breaks yesterday. He won all five rounds by one shot and beat Hawkins 5-2.
Robertson, who has been offline for a long time, finally found form at Monte Jade. He had several strong matches in a row and beat Hawkins 5-2. He advanced to the semifinals for the first time this season! The last time the two met in tonight’s semifinal was at last year’s Shanghai Masters. Ding has lost all of their last 4 meetings! The last time Ding beat Robertson was in the China Open final in 2014, which was nearly 10 years ago! At that time Ding won 10-5 to claim his 11th ranking title, completing the feat of five titles in a single season.
This season, Ding’s performance has been evident to all. He finished runner-up in the UK Championship for the second consecutive year and reached the top 8 of the Rankings twice. It was also the second time he reached the semifinals of a ranking tournament. He has played 46 matches this season and has a 70% win rate with 4,200 shots on target. On the other hand, Robertson has only shown signs of resurgence in this tournament. Prior to that, he had only reached the round of 32 once in the Championship. He has played a total of 48 tournaments with a winning percentage of 55% and a 3,400 shot performance. Although the two have played a total of 20 times, with Robertson dominating with 11 wins and 9 losses, Ding is completely stronger than Robertson in terms of his recent performances. Moreover, this time it is a home match. I believe the Chinese No.1 will soon finish 15th. Ranking Champion!
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
