If Ding Junhui can win the 2025 Snooker World Championship, it will be "good for every player"

The 2025 World Snooker Championship has entered the second round of the competition at the Crucible Theater. Every year since 2000, an Englishman has topped the World Snooker Championships, with the exception of Australia's Neil Robertson in 2010 and Belgium's Luca Bresel in 2023. But the long-term goal of snooker bosses is to grow the sport globally.

The World Taiwan Federation is optimistic that Ding Junhui, Zhao Xintong and Xiao Guodong will advance to the top 8 of the 2025 World Championships, while Lei Peifan, Si Jiahui and Pang Junxu are looked down

Jason Ferguson, president of the WPBSA (Chinese: World Professional Billy & Snooker Association), said: "Most people think the sport is very British and will continue to do so, but we can see that some countries are really eager to develop it. "In August 2001, snooker was included in the competition program of the World Games in Akita, Japan, which was a key moment in the development of snooker. Ferguson added: "It really changed the face of snooker. I remember walking into the stadium with my friends from Asia and we were holding a banner in front of 60,000 people that said 'Billiards'. My friend said to me, 'Jason, remember this day, this is the day when snooker became a sport. We turned this very popular competition, which was doing well in England, into a sport. ”

British media recently said that the popularity of snooker in China has grown rapidly, and this trend accelerated when the introverted Ding Junhui defeated seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry to win the 2005 China Open Snooker Championship two days after his 18th birthday. According to reports, 110 million TV viewers in China watched the live broadcast of the match.

Ding Junhui won the first of 15 ranking tournaments in his career at the 2005 China Open

Zhang Anda, currently ranked 12th in the world, said: "Because of Ding Junhui, snooker now has a big market. If Ding Junhui becomes the world champion, it will be good for every player, because China is a very big market. I hope he can win the title of his first World Championship. ”

As the leader of the Chinese snooker team, Ding Junhui is a frequent visitor to the World Championships, and his best result in the competition is the runner-up in 2016. However, judging from the answers handed over by Ding Junhui in the past 5 World Championships, his best result was only to enter the second round, and he failed to go further. Ding Junhui has already passed the first round of the 2025 World Championships, and his opponent in the second round is Brecel.

It is worth mentioning that former world No. 3 snooker legend Neil Folz is not optimistic about Ding Junhui's championship prospects. Commenting on Ding Junhui before the start of the World Championships, he said, "Ding Junhui has won one race this season (winning the 2024 National Championships, winning the 15th title in the ranking tournament), and he has also performed well in the recent Tour Championships, and he looks good in the victory over current world champion Kyren Wilson." In the back of my mind, I don't think he can become a world champion now, especially in a 17-day tournament that is a test of snooker players' perseverance and endurance that no other tournament has. I'm tempted to have misjudged it, but we may now have to look elsewhere for the first World Champion from China. ”

For the past four years, Ding Junhui has suffered a round of tours in Crucible every year, but at the 2025 World Championships, he finally stopped his downward spiral

The first round of the 2025 World Snooker Championship ended on the evening of the 24th local time, and a total of 6 Chinese players including Ding Junhui, Zhao Xintong, Xiao Guodong, Lei Peifan, Si Jiahui and Pang Junxu reached the top 16, which is 1 more than the second-ranked England Army (5 people). Among them, Zhao Xintong VS Lei Peifan is a Chinese derby, which means that at least one Chinese player will reach the quarterfinals in this World Championships.