Northern Ireland Open Results: Si Jiahui and Xiao Guodong Out Early

The first session at the Waterfront Hall had two matches on it, and both seeds lost. Wang Xinbo, an 18-year-old from Dalian ranked 104th, beat the 16th seed Si Jiahui 4–2. On the next table Sam Craigie, ranked 70th, beat the 12th seed Xiao Guodong 4–3. The tournament was two matches old and had already lost two of its top 16.

Upsets in the opening round of a Home Nations event are not rare. What makes these two worth a second look is how familiar the pattern already is for both players this season.

Si Jiahui: strong over nine frames, losing over seven

Si has had a good season in the longer matches. Before today he had won seven of his eleven matches over best of nine or best of eleven, and he reached the last 16 at the Shanghai Masters, the China Open, the Wuhan Open and the Shenzhen Open. Every one of his defeats in those formats came against a top player: Wu Yize in Shanghai, Neil Robertson in Taiyuan, and Judd Trump twice, in Wuhan and Shenzhen.

The best-of-seven events tell a different story. He lost 4–3 to Ashley Carty in the first round of the British Open and 4–1 to Robbie Williams at the English Open. Today makes it three from three. Over seven frames, two scrappy ones are enough to lose, and Si has not found a way through any of them.

He had beaten Wang before, 6–4 in the last 24 of the 2025 Shanghai Masters, a best-of-eleven match. Our match page had Si at 64%.

Wang Xinbo is not a random name

Wang earned a two-year tour card this season after finishing top of the Chinese CBSA Tour rankings alongside Luo Zetao. He came to Belfast through qualifying, beating David Lilley and Liam Graham in September. Earlier in the season he beat Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 4–2 at the English Open and reached the last 32 of the British Open, where Aaron Hill beat him 4–2.

One of his defeats this season came against the player who went out on the other table. In August, Xiao Guodong beat him 5–0 in the first round of the Wuhan Open.

Xiao Guodong: five defeats in six, three by one frame

That Wuhan win started the best week of Xiao's season. He beat Jackson Page, Chris Wakelin and Mark Williams to reach the semi-finals, where Zhao Xintong beat him 6–2.

Since then he has won once in six matches, 4–2 against Jiang Jun at the British Open. The defeats are the interesting part, because most of them were close:

• British Open: lost 4–2 to Lyu Haotian.
• English Open: lost 4–3 to Ross Muir.
• International Championship qualifying: lost 6–4 to Dylan Emery, so he will not be in Nanjing next month.
• Shenzhen Open: lost 5–4 to Michael Holt.
• Northern Ireland Open: lost 4–3 to Craigie.

Three of those five went to a deciding frame. A player whose game has gone would be losing heavily. Xiao is losing the last frame, which points to small margins rather than a slump, but small margins are what best-of-seven snooker is made of. His record in the format this season is now one win and three defeats. Our match page had him at only 54%, the closest of the morning's two calls.

Craigie, for his part, has been here before. At the Welsh Open in February he beat Elliot Slessor and Gary Wilson to reach the last 16, and last month he beat Noppon Saengkham 6–3 to qualify for the International Championship.

What the morning tells you about the format

Put the two seeds together and they are one win and six defeats in best-of-seven matches this season. Over longer distances the same two players are thirteen and nine. That is a small sample, but it fits the pattern in our piece on match length: the shorter the match, the less a gap in quality is worth.

Both our picks were wrong this morning, and the Belfast hub will mark them as misses when tonight's results update.

Who they play next

Wang meets Gary Wilson or Mateusz Baranowski in the last 32. Si had beaten Wilson in all five of their meetings, as we covered in our piece on that rivalry, so Wilson loses an awkward opponent before he has played. Craigie gets Ali Carter or Xu Si, who meet this evening.

Lisowski starts his defence against Huang Jiahao this afternoon. His match page has our call, and every other first-round match is listed on the same hub.