Wuhan Open Day Two: Zizins Conquers World Champion Wu
Latvia’s first snooker professional Artimijs Zizins scored the biggest win of his life so far, defeating World Champion Wu Yize 5-4 in front of a packed crowd at the Wuhan Open.
Zizins turned pro in 2024, when he successfully ran the Q School gauntlet at the first time of asking. The 20-year-old reached the last 16 of a ranking event for the first time in his career a few months ago at the World Open. He will now face Stephen Maguire to reach the same stage here in Wuhan.
A dramatic encounter this afternoon swung back and forth. Zizins made a brilliant start, crafting breaks of 58, 85 and 85 to lead 3-1 at the mid-session interval.
When play resumed, a three-frame burst from home hero Wu, which included breaks of 129 and 87, moved him one frame from victory at 4-3. However, Zizins showed his steel with 80 to force a decider.
A thrilling finale saw both players spurn opportunities to get over the line. Ultimately Wu failed to deposit the black whilst seeking position on the final yellow. Zizins cleared to the pink to secure a famous win.
An elated Zizins said: “There are no words for how I feel. I began on the World Snooker Tour two years ago, now I am playing the World Champion on table one in a full arena and winning. It felt unbelievable. I’m just beginning my journey and I was nervous. Hopefully I can experience this more and get better.“
2025 World Champion Zhao Xintong was in action on the other table in what was a bumper afternoon session of action, with over 3,000 fans watching on. He enjoyed contrasting fortunes to compatriot Wu, thrashing Gao Yang 5-0 to progress.
Zhao knows that if he can equal or better Neil Robertson’s performance this week, then he will put himself in a strong position to end the event as world number one. Robertson kept his own hopes alive with a 5-1 defeat of Ben Mertens.
For Zhao, breaks of 107, 118, 75, 82 and 67 helped him to victory this afternoon and set up a meeting with former Crucible finalist Jak Jones in the next round. Though he admits that is a lifelong target, he’s currently looking at things with a bigger perspective.
Zhao said: “When I was very young, becoming world number one was probably my biggest dream. But now that I’m at this stage of my career, I think it’s better to just let things happen naturally. If you play well and something is meant to be yours, then it will be yours.“
Current world number one Judd Trump knows he must win the title to stand a chance of remaining at the summit of the Johnstone’s Paint World Rankings. He scored a 5-0 whitewash win over Yuan Sijun this evening and now plays either Si Jiahui or Dylan Emery.
Seven-time World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan earned a hard-fought 5-2 win over Ashley Carty, but says he’s been missing producing his top form in recent times.
The Rocket recently admitted that the 2028 World Championship may be his last and has stated that his main remaining ambition is to capture a record-breaking eighth Crucible crown. However, defeats to Kyren Wilson at the Shanghai Masters and Noppon Saengkham at the China Open have meant both of his appearances this season have ended at the second hurdle.
The first two frames this morning were shared, before a break of 59 saw O’Sullivan steal the third on the black. He then dominated the fourth to lead 3-1 at the mid-session interval.
Carty pulled one back after play resumed, but he couldn’t build any momentum and 50-year-old O’Sullivan claimed the next two on the bounce to emerge a 5-2 victor and book a meeting with China’s Yao Pengcheng.Â
O’Sullivan said: “My performance was pretty bad really. You have to call it out. I’m not going to lie. I’m not going to try to delude myself and say there was some good stuff. It has been pretty bad for a long time, so I expect to play pretty bad every time I go out there. I know I don’t have anything to prove and that is what everyone keeps telling me. However, for my own selfish reasons I miss playing well and dominating the table, beating anyone who is in front of me. I miss that feeling, but there is nothing I can do about it.“
Regarding Ronnie’s match … here are the scores :
Whaterver Ronnie says, there was some good stuff in there, but, it can be denied, there were some really unexpected mistakes as well. Ronnie always sets very high standards for himself and, right now, he is is not able to play at the level he wants to play at. He looked extremely frustrated at times during this match, but he didn’t allow his frustration to “overpower” him and he tried his best from start to finish. That alone is a huge positive, and he deserves credit for it … but himself won’t see it that way of course, certainly not right after the match anyway.
Here are some images from that match, most shared on weibo.
Next for Ronnie is Yao Pencheng who whitewashed Jack Lisowski… with theese scores …
Well THAT looks seriously scary and if the guy can sustain that level … he should win a tournament soon.
Having written that … I haven’t seen the match, it wasn’t shown on HBO Max, and Jack, of course, plays a very open game. Safety is not his main strength and that’s an understatement 😎 …
All the same, it means that, in that form, Yao punishes most, if not all, of his opponents’ mistakes and scores heavily when in. That’s a worrying prospect for whoever has to face him.
And last but not least, as a mainland European snooker fan, I’m over the moon for Artimijs Zizins 🥰1
