On January 10, 2022, Beijing time, the first day of the snooker Masters ended, and the defending champion Yan Bingtao lost to Mark Williams 4-6, and was eliminated in the first round. Two world champions made it to the quarter-finals on the first matchday, with Mark Williams and Neil Robertson, who eliminated Anthony McGill 6-3.
In the past 2021, Yan Bingtao and Zhao Xintong brought hope and vitality to China's snooker, and Yan Bingtao won the Masters, becoming the first post-00s champion in the history of snooker's three major competitions. So, the 2022 Snooker Masters is his journey to defend his title. As the defending champion, Yan Bingtao started the opening match against Mark Williams, veteran Mark Williams was plagued by injuries, and the Snooker Masters was his debut in 2022.
After the opening, Mark Williams took the lead in finding the mobile phone meeting, but the first two sets were almost the same plot, Mark Williams made a mistake in the middle, yan Bingtao played a single shot of 64 points and 71 points in a row, leading 2-0. Mark Williams made a brilliant snooker in the third set before pulling back a set with a single 63. In the final set of the first half, Yan Bingtao seized the opportunity and played a single 57 points to take a 3-1 lead.
Yan Bingtao's situation was very good, but in the second half, the situation suddenly changed. In the fifth inning, Mark Williams single-handedly scored the powder ball, from this inning, Mark Williams shot four 50+, and the eighth inning's single 104 points was also the first hundred of the Masters. Mark Williams won four consecutive sets to win 5-3 match points. Yan Bingtao scored a 122-pointer in the ninth inning to save a match point. However, Mark Williams had good luck in the tenth set, establishing an early advantage, locking up the victory with a single shot of 85 points, and eliminating Yan Bingtao 6-4.
Judging from the performance of the whole game, although Yan Bingtao lost the game and suffered a round of travel as the defending champion, Yan Bingtao's performance was quite good, and both offensive and defensive ends played a high level, and the future is worth looking forward to.
In the other game, title-winning favourite Neil Robertson eliminated Anthony McGill 6-3. In the whole game, Neil Robertson shot four 50+, and Anthony McGill shot a hundred, two 70+, both of them had a lot of mistakes, although Neil Robertson won, but the competitive state is still relatively average, to make a difference in this Masters, Neil Robertson needs to come up with better competitive status.
In this way, the first matchday of the Masters ended, the two world champions Mark Williams and Neil Robertson reached the quarterfinals, and the defending champion Yan Bingtao was out of the first round, which was somewhat regrettable. I hope that Zhao Xintong, who will appear next, can play at the best level and bring more surprises!