For domestic snooker fans, the past two days can be described as bad news, in the first round of the 2022 Masters, two Chinese young players Yan Bingtao and Zhao Xintong have regretted being out one after another and encountering a round of travel hand in hand.
As the defending champion, Yan Bingtao was forced to achieve a big reversal in the first round by Mark Williams, and Zhao Xintong met the fiery John Higgins in his first Masters trip, and finally bid farewell to the event early after the loss.
Compared with the previous Yan Bingtao being reversed and eliminated, Zhao Xintong can be said to have no counterforce in the whole process, except for the time when he blasted out a single shot in the second set, he was almost completely suppressed by Higgins, and the accuracy of survival was also completely "dumb".
I have to say that the experienced Higgins brought the game into his own rhythm, and the airtight defense also forced Zhao Xintong to make mistakes many times, and Zhao Xintong also hesitated to attack after several long platform failures, and even chose to compete with Higgins for defense, which also fell into Higgins's trap.
As we all know, Zhao Xintong's debut has been known for accuracy, defense has always been his relatively weak aspect, and Higgins, a delicate player, is most afraid of the accuracy type player, because once the defense has loopholes or energy declines, then it will give the opponent an opportunity, and Zhao Xintong can reverse Higgins in the British Championships by relying on amazing accuracy.
But this Masters Game Higgins obviously changed the strategy, first in the early stage through accurate defense does not give you any long stage opportunities, and then wait for your feel to slide deliberately leak if there is no offensive opportunity to wait for you to make a mistake to get started, and then Zhao Xintong should be afraid to choose defense when there is no accuracy.
And this just entered Higgins' favorite rhythm, in the second half of the showdown, Zhao Xintong made major mistakes many times because of the defense back to the ball, Higgins seized the opportunity to continuously blast high scores in a good situation and finally got the promotion, which is the horrible adjustment ability of the best player in history, and will change his playing style at any time according to the state of the opponent.
Objectively speaking, Zhao Xintong's decline in accuracy this time is on the one hand, entering the rhythm that the opponent is good at is also an important reason for losing, but frankly speaking, Higgins' state is also surprisingly good, and any player who encounters this state cannot guarantee to take away the victory.
Although Higgins successfully won the game with revenge, the 46-year-old veteran did not hide his love for the new generation of Chinese youngsters in the post-match interview, and bluntly said that he was very envious of Zhao Xintong's talent.
Higgins said: Zhao Xintong is really too good this game he is just a little abnormal, I am just relatively lucky to grasp the initiative on the field, this is also my best recent state, it is a pity that Zhao Xintong failed to play the real level.
Zhao Xintong's talent is simply enviable, he is a future superstar of snooker, and he hopes to become the leader of the world stage, his strength is far better than what the audience saw in this audience.
Through Higgins' praise and the praise of other players in recent times, it can be seen that Zhao Xintong, a domestic young player, is deeply liked by his predecessors, which also indirectly proves that Zhao Xintong did not lose his own character even if he lost, and his humble personality is obvious to all, unlike some players who always lose and lose.
Zhao Xintong also paid a price for his youth this time, hoping to accumulate more competition experience through this loss, a failure can not explain anything, and work hard to train aside distractions to achieve more excellent results next.