Žižins beats China's He 4:1 to reach "British Open" last 16

Latvian snooker player Artemijs Žižins won 4:1 against the more experienced Chinese player Guocjans He in the third round of the professional ranking tournament "British Open". The match began more than half an hour behind schedule because the previous match on the same table ran long.

A back-and-forth contest

In the first frame, He built an early ten-point lead but failed to capitalise on it, turning the frame into a lengthy tactical battle that Žižins eventually edged out. In the second frame, despite an imprecise attempt to split the reds late on, the Latvian benefited from his opponent's mistakes to move 2:0 ahead.

He took control of the third frame, compiling a break of around fifty and later a 63-point clearance to cut the deficit to 2:1. In the fourth frame, a costly decision by Žižins to attempt two shots at once proved decisive, but He also erred on an easy red, allowing the Latvian to level the frame after a tactical battle and move to 3:1.

In the fifth frame both players made several heavy errors, but Žižins managed to hold on to his advantage and closed out the match 4:1.

What's next and history

For reaching the fourth round of the "British Open", the 20-year-old will earn at least 9,000 pounds and the same number of ranking points. He will learn his next opponent once all third-round matches conclude. This was Žižins' third career win over He, having previously beaten the Chinese player in qualifying for the 2025 Wuhan Open and in January this year in Welsh Open qualifying.