**In the first round of the Croatian Players Championship, Ding Junhui and Higgins met and finally lost 4-6. This defeat has put Ding Junhui's qualification for the Saudi Masters in jeopardy, and what worries fans even more is that Ding Junhui is still in a mediocre state.
In all fairness, Ding Junhui's performance in the early hours of this morning has improved a little compared with the Welsh Open, but compared with Higgins, who has been playing frequently recently, Ding Junhui is obviously still a little "handy", and at the critical moment, Higgins did not have the habitual "power outage", on the contrary, Ding Junhui handed over the game after a long platform error.
At present, there are still two full months before the World Championships, and Ding Junhui still has two high-prize tournaments to play before the World Championships, the World Open and the Tour Championship, and the Saudi Masters is still expected to play. Ding Junhui's trend this season is quite similar to last season, he gradually recovered his hand before the British Championships, and won the runner-up in the British Championships. But this year, similar to last year, Ding Junhui fell back again after the British Championships, except for the World Open to win three consecutive games to reach the semifinals, only the Scottish Open won two consecutive victories in other tournaments.
Last year, Ding Junhui qualified for the Tour Championship and seeded the World Championships without danger after losing all the way, but lost to Wafei in the first round of the World Championships. This year, Ding Junhui has been seeded for the World Championships early, and he is expected to seize the opportunities of the World Open and Tour Championships, especially the World Open on his home turf, to find his touch in time before the World Championships.
With Ding Junhui out, there are still two Chinese players left in the Players Championship: Zhou Yuelong and Zhang Anda. In the early morning of tomorrow Beijing time, Zhou Yuelong will be the first to challenge the rockets. On this match day, new Welsh Open champion Gary Wilson will take the field again against Wafai, Williams and Allen, the two top 16ers who meet directly, and Forde and Carter, two Saudi Masters ticket contenders, meet in a narrow way, with Forde needing to win the title and Carter needing to win two games in a row to reach the semi-finals.