Zak Surety makes Crucible history in roller coaster defeat to Ding Junhui
Surety is into the record books.
Zak Surety was beaten 10-7 by Ding Junhui in the opening round at the World Snooker Championship, but became the first player in history to make four centuries on his Crucible debut.
The world number 73 did brilliantly to qualify for the Crucible for the first time, with three fine wins at the English Institute of Sport.
The 33-year-old beat Antoni Kowalski, Jack Lisowski and Ricky Walden to book his spot at the iconic theatre and made his lowly world ranking look wildly inaccurate.
However, nerves appeared to have hit him hard early in his match with Ding as he slipped to a 4-0 deficit and looked very uncomfortable on the sport’s biggest stage.
To his immense credit, though, he settled down and finished the first session on Monday afternoon 6-3 behind and still in the match, ending that session with his first Crucible century.
Returning on Tuesday afternoon Surety made three more tons in the first four frames, with a high break of 136, reducing his deficit to just 7-6 behind.
Ding, though, was not rattled and hit back with efforts of 86 and 116 in the next three frames and was one from victory at 9-7.
The Chinese superstar reached the winning line in the next frame and secured his spot in the last 16 but Surety can be very proud of his efforts on his first trip to the Crucible.
Waiting in the second round for the Dragon will be either Ryan Day or 2023 champion Luca Brecel after he landed his first win at the Crucible for five years.
‘In the end I played very good in the last two frames,’ he told the BBC. ‘Real pressure was coming because he played some unbelievable snooker to make four centuries in five frames.
‘I believe in myself. I don’t feel badly. Actually I played not great. I just kept going and kept going.’
It will ultimately be disappointment for the Essex cueman, but it is the end of the best season of his career by far after reaching a first ranking semi-final at the World Open.
‘Obviously it’s disappointing,’ he said. ‘I played a really bad green when I got back to 8-7, I got a bit over-excited and lost a bit of focus with the safety shots. But whenever I got in, it was incredible to feel like that in there, considering how I started yesterday. To feel like that today, it just shows how mad the game can be at times.
‘It’s mad. I’ve made a century first frame but still felt all over the place. But after that the nerves just left me. It’s so weird because every match, every qualifier all season I’m always nervous, but then I felt that whenever I had the chance I fancied clearing up.’
Ding is a title-winner already this season thanks to winning the International Championship and has to be considered a threat over the next two weeks in Sheffield.
Encouragingly for him he played his best stuff at the climax of the game when the pressure was on, knocking in breaks of 86, 116 and 75 over the final four frames.
Brecel and Day play their first round game on Wednesday and Thursday, with the last 16 game schedule for Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
