**The first round of the Masters kicked off on January 8, local time, and Ding Junhui and O'Sullivan once again competed fiercely, staging a much-watched Ding Ao showdown. Although Ding Junhui once again played a perfect score of 147 strokes in nearly 8 years in this game, he still failed to defeat O'Sullivan and missed the quarterfinals with a score of 3-6. In the first game, O'Sullivan took the lead and won the game 100-27, scoring as many as 67 points in a single stroke. In the second game of the following, O'Sullivan won another game 74-37 to extend the lead.
In the 3rd and 4th games, O'Sullivan scored 87 and 106 points respectively to enter the halftime break with a 4-0 lead. In the 5th game that followed, Ding Junhui scored 56 points in a single stroke and struggled to recover 1 game. In the next 6th game, Ding Junhui made another effort and scored 92 points with a single stroke, chasing the score to 2-4. In the 7th game, Ding Junhui played an amazing perfect score of 147 strokes, chasing 3 games in a row to chase the score to 3-4.
This is the seventh time in Ding's career that he has shot a perfect 147, the sixth time this season, and the 195th time in the official record of 147. The last time Ding Junhui scored 147 points in an official game was nearly 8 years ago in February 2016. In the history of the Masters, there are four players who have shot a perfect score of 147, and Ding Junyu has won two of them. However, despite scoring a perfect score in the 7th game, O'Sullivan then responded with a 127 in the 8th game and took the lead to get the match point.
In the 9th game, O'Sullivan played well again, hitting a single shot of 93 points, and finally won the game with a score of 6-3. In the end, after 9 rounds of fierce competition, Ding Junyu lost to O'Sullivan 3-6 and unfortunately stopped in the first round of the Masters. And O'Sullivan, who successfully advanced, will face the winner between Hawkins and Robertson in the next round.