On January 6th, Beijing time, the 2025 Lhasa Plateau Snooker Challenge saw Chinese star Xiao Guodong take on world number one Trump once again. In this match, despite Xiao Guodong's two century breaks and his efforts to save two match points after trailing 1-4 in the total score, he ultimately fell short of a great comeback and lost 3-5, suffering his tenth consecutive defeat to world number one Trump.
Xiao Guodong recently participated in the Hangzhou Invitational and this Lhasa Challenge consecutively, and he made a maximum break of 147 in the previous Hangzhou Invitational, showing a fiery offensive form! On the previous match day, Xiao Guodong won 5-1 against Geng Yuan, the runner-up of the qualifying round, in his debut at the Lhasa Challenge.
As the world number one, Trump is naturally the protagonist of various exhibition matches. He has been invited to participate in three consecutive stations: the Macau Invitational, Hangzhou Invitational, and Lhasa Challenge. This season, Trump has entered the final five times, winning the Shanghai Masters, Saudi Masters, and Snooker UK Championship titles, with his single-season ranking also firmly at the top.
In this match, Xiao Guodong started somewhat slowly, making consecutive mistakes, while Trump seized the opportunity to win three games in a row, establishing a 3-0 lead in the total score. The first and second games were particularly unfortunate for Xiao Guodong; in the first game, he scored a single-rod 57 but due to a defensive error, he was defeated by Trump with a one-point difference, 57-58! In the second game, Xiao Guodong failed to reverse the situation under favorable circumstances, making a low-level mistake on the last black ball. In the third game, Xiao Guodong still made mistakes, and Trump scored a single-rod 64, easily winning again with 97-5.
In the fourth game, Trump took the lead but missed a forced pocket shot on the black ball at the bottom pocket, Xiao Guodong seized the opportunity to clear the table, scoring a single-rod 94 points, finally winning a game. After the first four games, Trump led 3-1.
After the intermission, Trump scored a single-rod century break of 110 in the fifth game, expanding his lead in the total score to 4-1 and securing multiple match points first. In desperate circumstances, Xiao Guodong let go and became more relaxed mentally, which was more conducive to his offensive play. In the sixth and seventh games, Xiao Guodong scored two century breaks of 120 and 114 points respectively, saving two match points, chasing from a 1-4 deficit to 3-4! However, in the subsequent eighth game, Xiao Guodong failed to continue saving match points to drag the game into a decisive game. A defensive error where the cue ball sank to the bottom cost him dearly, as Trump capitalized with a single-rod century break of 129 points to convert the match point, defeating Xiao Guodong 5-3. After this match, Trump achieved a ten-game winning streak against Xiao Guodong!