Chinese Players Put On a Great Show
Millions of TV viewers were gripped by an epic battle yesterday. The arena: the snooker World Championship in Sheffield, England. The combatants: Chinese players Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo.
Ding began the session well, cementing an overnight lead with a further two frames to take him 7-4 ahead of Liang.
But Liang rallied magnificently, taking the next four frames to give him a narrow lead over his compatriot.
Having failed to pot a ball for over an hour, it looked like things might be over for Ding. But then he produced a clearance of 111 to take the 16th frame. Breaks of 91 and 63 on the following frames secured him the match.
The world number 11 now faces Stephen Hendry, a seven-time world champion. Hendry beat Ding in Sheffield last year, but Ding must still savour memories of his win over the Scotsman in the 2005 China Open. He delighted the Beijing crowd by coming from 4-1 down to beat Hendry 9-5 in the final.
Current champion Ronnie O’Sullivan believes Ding Junhui has what it takes to go all the way. He is reported to have said in the past, "Tennis has Federer, golf has Tiger Woods, Ding could do the same to snooker."
But this year, O’Sullivan is himself the focus of most attention. The world number one was recently put under review after making lewd comments at a news conference during the China Open.
Nevertheless, O’Sullivan is a favourite to win this year’s championship. In the second frame of his first-round victory over Stuart Bingham, it took ‘The Rocket’ just seven minutes to deliver a clearance of 140.
Yet O’Sullivan is anything but complacent. After the game he was asked to judge his performance out of 10. He said, "Five. Something like that."
译文:
2009年世界斯诺克台球锦标赛
中国选手上演精彩赛事 昨日，电视机前成千上万的观众关注着一场空前绝后的赛事—在英国谢菲尔德举行的世界斯诺克台球锦标赛。交战对手是中国选手丁俊晖和梁文博。
丁出师告捷，在前两局巩固了领先地位，以7比4的分数超过梁。
然而梁也极好地回击，把握住后来的四局，险胜他的同胞。
在持续一个小时没有进一个球的情形下，丁似乎就要败北了。但他随后在第16局中清杆拿下111分。在接下来的战局中以一杆球91比63的成绩赢得了这场比赛。
世界排名第11位的丁俊晖现在正面临着夺过七次世界冠军的斯蒂芬·亨得利。去年在谢菲尔德，亨得利打败了丁俊晖，而丁可能还在回味2005年中国公开赛上与这位苏格兰人交战的胜利。在决赛中，他在4:1落后的形势下，以9:5一举击败亨得利，让中国观众欢呼雀跃。
当前的冠军罗尼·奥沙利文认为丁俊晖具有夺冠的实力。据报道，他曾说过：“网球有费德勒，高尔夫球有老虎伍兹，丁一样可以称霸斯诺克。”
然而在今年，奥沙利文自己却是众人瞩目的焦点。这位世界冠军在中国公开赛期间，在一新闻发布会上由于言论粗俗，最近被审查中。
尽管如此，奥沙利文却有望能获得今年的冠军。在打败斯图亚特·宾汉姆的第一轮比赛的第二局中，这位“火箭人”只用了七分钟就单杆拿下140分。
但奥沙利文一点也不骄傲自满。比赛过后他被要求评价自己的表现在10人中应该排名第几，他说：“第五位吧，差不多这样。”