Ding Junhui throws back his head and allows his eyes to droop closed for a few seconds. Opens them. Closes them. Finally, with a kind of resignation, opens them again. Ruffles the hair at his temples with both hands, as if trying to shake himself awake. Meanwhile, oblivious to any of this, his opponent Jack Lisowski continues to pot balls and rack up points: just a few feet away and yet in an entirely different world.
Welcome to the loneliest seat in sport. For the next minutes, perhaps even hours, this is your whole world and its horizons are extremely limited. You get a couple of bottles of water and a small table. You can’t leave. You can’t make a sound. No teammates or coach for solace. No way of knowing when you can get up again. Your opponent is busily clearing the table, playing you out of the frame. And – the worst part – it’s usually your own fault that you’re sitting there.
