From the time yan Bingtao unexpectedly won the championship at the Masters in January, to Ronnie O'Sullivan's 38th ranking title at the World Grand Prix this month, it can be said that 2021 is a unique year on the snooker field.
文/Phil Haigh,《Metro》
At the 2021 World Championships, after a year of closed doors, fans returned to Crucible with joy. Witnessed by the audience, Mark Selby won his fourth world title.
We've seen new ranking titles like David Gilbert, Jordan Brown and Zhao Xintong emerge, and we've seen many big names continue to pick up titles, with a total of 12 players winning the rankings in the year.
This year's race has all come to an end, and we can take stock of some of the "most" of snooker in 2021. Among them, there are well-deserved, there are many opinions, there are surprises and regrets, and then we will reveal them one by one.
Player of the Year – John Higgins
Who will spend the best player of the year is actually quite worth considering. Mark Selby is this year's World Champion and year-end World Number One, but he only won the only world championship in 2021, and the only final experience other than the World Championships is a single time limit. For Selby, 2021 is still a great and successful year, but not a dominant one.
Judd Trump has won three titles in 2021, more than anyone else in terms of the number of titles. But although the championship is considered a big competition, the German Masters championship seems to be less important, and the Gibraltar Open champion is even less worth mentioning. This season, Trump has not reached the final of the ranking tournament, or even reached the semi-finals.
Neil Robertson and Mark Williams both won two titles in 2021, yan Bingtao and Zhao Xintong each won their first "three majors" title, but I think the player of the year is John Higgins.
Higgins won the Players' Championship by an absolute margin this year, but he reached the final five times this year. From the Masters in January to the Scottish Open in December, Higgins, who finished five runners-up and one champion, had an astonishingly consistent record.
Higgins is the player who has reached the finals the most times in 2021 and has won the players' championship, a major ranking tournament, and in terms of overall results, it can be said to be the best player of the year.
Best of the Year – Mark Allen 9:8 John Higgins
The scene of Belfast fans cheering for hometown hero Mark Allen winning the Northern Ireland Open earlier this season gave us a real glimpse of how wonderful and important fan support is.
Trailing John Higgins 6:8, Allen seemed to be getting farther and farther away from the title. Higgins has just scored 59, 64 and 136 points to take the lead in the match point, and it is an unfinished task to win back the championship from the imposing Higgins.
However, Allen pulled the race back to the same running line in his own way, and in the suffocating atmosphere of the decider, Allen announced his return with an exciting victory.
Best Performer of the Year – Sean Murphy
You may not have a clue about the performing candidate of the year, let alone how to pick a winner, but personally, the first thing that comes to mind when I think of expressiveness is Sean Murphy's punch at the World Championships.
Sean Murphy trailed Karen Wilson 4-10 in the world championship semi-finals, and wilson was in full control of the situation, and Murphy was about to be swept out. But incredibly, Murphy began to fight back and won 17:12, and we can feel Murphy's fortitude through the camera.
In the 20th inning of the match, the two sides tied the score to fight for the black, and Murphy won the game by scoring the black ball through a very difficult bench, and then swung a powerful fist at the audience. As Wilson left the arena dejected, Murphy once again punched the audience.
A black ball and two punches seemed to epitomize the semi-finals, and Wilson admitted after the game that Murphy's move bothered him.
The most breakthrough player of the year - Zhao Xintong
Compared with Yan Bingtao's victory over the Masters after 00, Zhao Xintong's experience of winning the British Championship seems to be a bigger breakthrough. Yan Bingtao was already one of the world's top 16 players before winning the Masters, and had won the ranking tournament, and Zhao Xintong's best result in many years of transitioning to the profession was only the quarterfinals of the tournament.
Zhao Xintong's talent needs no more words, but it was not until this year's British Championship that Zhao Xintong's talent finally received the blessing of the champion.
Zhao Xintong defeated John Higgins, Tacchaia Uno, Jack Lissovsky and Barry Hawkins with outstanding performances at the British Championships, and easily defeated Luka Bressel in the final to lift the championship trophy.
After making an extraordinary breakthrough in 2021, Zhao Xintong is now under pressure to consolidate his position as a top player in 2022.
Biggest dark horse of the year – Jordan Brown
Because of Jordan Brown's victory, Zhao Xintong's British Championship victory does not seem to be so shocking to the four seats.
Jordan Brown's personal best was in the quarter-finals before he played at the Welsh Open in February, while he was at odds of 750/1 to win the Welsh Open.
Brown unexpectedly beat Lo Hong-ho, Sam Craig, Alexander Ussenbach and Mark King to reach the quarter-finals. His next opponent is Mark Selby, where his dark horse journey is likely to end. But Brown continued to write his miracle, beating Selby in the decider and stephen Maguire in the semi-finals to reach the final in history.
And the other semi-finalist in the semi-district is... O'sullivan. Before the final began, almost everyone was one-sided in the belief that O'Sullivan would win.
It can be said that in the final Brown played very well, O'Sullivan himself played well, and Brown had so much courage to let him beat O'Sullivan 9:8 to win the 2021 Welsh Open.
The most regrettable scene of the year – there is no live audience
For Jordan Brown, the only title he has won so far without the applause and cheers of the fans seems like a huge regret. Similarly, no fans saw Yan Bingtao beat Higgins in the final of the Masters, as did Higgins' crushing victory at the Players' Championship and Robertson's victory at the Tour Championship, with champions facing empty venues and "canned applause."
Those wonderful games and brilliant moments, if there is the blessing of the live audience, it will be even more unforgettable.
Thankfully, we welcomed back the crowd before the Crucible final. One table, two finalists, nearly a thousand enthusiastic fans, this is what Crucible should look like.
Being able to stick to the competition under the new crown epidemic is undoubtedly the result of WST's great efforts to get back, but it is undeniable that those games without live spectators also have a little regret in the completion.