国外媒体:2009年世界台球锦标赛

The 2009 Snooker World Championship 2009年世界台球锦标赛

Millions of TV viewers were gripped by an epic¹ battle yesterday. The arena²: the snooker World Championship in Sheffield, England. The combatants: Chinese players Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo.

Ding began the session well, cementing an overnight lead with a further two frames to take him 7-4 ahead of Liang.

But Liang rallied magnificently, taking the next four frames to give him a narrow lead over his compatriot.

Having failed to pot a ball for over an hour, it looked like things might be over for Ding. But then he produced a clearance³ of 111 to take the 16th frame. Breaks of 91 and 63 on the following frames secured him the match.

The world number 11 now faces Stephen Hendry, a seven-time world champion. Hendry beat Ding in Sheffield last year, but Ding must still savour memories of his win over the Scotsman in the 2005 China Open. He delighted the Beijing crowd by coming from 4-1 down to beat Hendry 9-5 in the final.

Current champion Ronnie O’Sullivan believes Ding Junhui has what it takes to go all the way. He is reported to have said in the past, "Tennis has Federer, golf has Tiger Woods, Ding could do the same to snooker."

But this year, O’Sullivan is himself the focus of most attention. The world number one was recently put under review after making lewd⁴ comments at a news conference during the China Open.

Nevertheless, O’Sullivan is a favourite to win this year’s championship. In the second frame of his first-round victory over Stuart Bingham, it took ‘The Rocket’ just seven minutes to deliver a clearance of 140.

Yet O’Sullivan is anything but complacent⁵. After the game he was asked to judge his performance out of 10. He said, "Five. Something like that."

1 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

2 arena   

n.竞技场，运动场所；竞争场所，舞台

参考例句：

• She entered the political arena at the age of 25. 她25岁进入政界。
• He had not an adequate arena for the exercise of his talents.他没有充分发挥其才能的场所。

3 clearance   

n.净空；许可(证)；清算；清除，清理

参考例句：

• There was a clearance of only ten centimetres between the two walls.两堵墙之间只有十厘米的空隙。
• The ship sailed as soon as it got clearance. 那艘船一办好离港手续立刻启航了。

4 lewd   

adj.淫荡的

参考例句：

• Drew spends all day eyeing up the women and making lewd comments.德鲁整天就盯着女人看，说些下流话。
• I'm not that mean,despicable,cowardly,lewd creature that horrible little man sees. 我可不是那个令人恶心的小人所见到的下流、可耻、懦弱、淫秽的家伙。

5 complacent   

adj.自满的；自鸣得意的

参考例句：

• We must not become complacent the moment we have some success.我们决不能一见成绩就自满起来。
• She was complacent about her achievements.她对自己的成绩沾沾自喜。