On January 9, the opening match of the 2022 Snooker Masters began, and the defending champion China's post-00s rising star Yan Bingtao played against the 46-year-old veteran Williams. In the end, Yan Bingtao led 3-1 in the first half, suffered a reversal in the second half, and was completed by Williams 6-4, regretting that a round of travel was out. This year's Masters is the 24th time of Williams' career, and it was at the 1998 Masters 24 years ago that Williams achieved his first Masters title, when he defeated Hendry, the "Emperor of Billiards", who was still in full shape, and then won the title for the second time in 2003. Having not tasted the taste of a Masters title for a long time, Williams has a new ambition and desire.
This season is still relatively large for Williams, and at the historic ranking tournament Great Britain Open, which resumed at the beginning of the season, Williams won his 24th ranking championship. But then he was deeply troubled by gout and diagnosed with the new crown, and left the field for a while. After returning, Williams is slowly regaining his touch, and this Masters is a return to a new look. In the game, Williams showed a good feel, although in the first half was Yan Bingtao seized the opportunity, to 1-3 behind, but in the second half he was full of firepower, continuously played a single high score, with a quick decision to solve the battle, and finally the big score was set at 6-4, Williams successfully advanced to the quarterfinals.
In the next quarter-final round, Williams will face the winners of Higgins and Zhao Xintong. For the choice of opponents, Williams directly named Higgins, in his opinion, both of them are old guys on the field, as they get older, their hair is getting balder, but the confrontation between the two still has a sense of youth. He still remembers the scene in the 2018 World Championship final, when the two played a final with a high gold content, and finally Williams won his third World Championship title at the age of 43. So this time, he was looking forward to fighting Higgins again and regaining the feeling of that year.
Just tonight, the first round of the Masters between Zhao Xintong and Higgins will start, and for the new Keying Championship champion Zhao Xintong, the Masters is also the debut of his career, and he also encounters a difficult opponent like Higgins, which is naturally not small. It is also inevitable to be directly ignored by Williams, and if you want to win the respect of your opponents, you must conquer your opponents with your achievements. On the road to winning the British Championship, Zhao Xintong has proved that he can do it, so in the second leg of the three major competitions in a single season, Zhao Xintong is also ready. Impacting the achievements of a single-season Grand Slam, he still has a great chance.