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Preamble
Human beings are born with hope – we all have ambitions and desires when we’re young, then life and reality coach them out of us. So on the odd occasion we come across someone with the talent and drive, ego and discipline to withstand the onslaught, it’s moving: they’re not just fulfilling themselves but us, our pain and desperation converted into tranquility and joy.
In that sense, sport is one of the more worthy activities we can pursue, teaching us to celebrate others with full hearts – to see our species as one – which, in these divided times, means a lot. The snooker won’t heal us, but goodness me, it’s up there with the best we have to offer ourselves by way of comfort.
Wu Yize is a 22-year-old from Lanzhou, the capital city of Gansu province in China’s north west. He is not someone you’d expect to read about in the pages of a British newspaper – however outward looking – except he’s also a genius of preternatural precision and unique flair through whom we understand more of a world that would otherwise be hidden from us. He begins today with the dream that animates his life a mere eight frames away … and the knowledge that consequently, things may become too much for him, leading to its brutal confiscation.
Which brings us on to Shaun Murphy, a potter of rare aesthetic perfection, who claimed his one world title when Wu was a baby. Since then, he’s lost three finals, dealing with myriad form losses and confidence crises, fearing he’d never again reach the pinnacle of the game without ever losing the courage to give it everything he has. That is not easily done, trading the ambiguity of easy refuge for the certainty of not being good enough and, at 10-7 down, he is once again daring himself to attack his own failure.
Or, in other words, whatever happens next, the enduring beauty of humanity is right here, waiting to absorb us in its embrace. The least we can do is reciprocate.
Play: 1pm BST