O'Sullivan played Trump in the first round! Zhao Xintong was listed as the number one seed, and he was afraid of encountering Yan Bingtao in advance. The 2022 Snooker Players Championship will kick off on the 7th of this month, according to the regulations, only players ranked in the top 16 in a single season can qualify, and Chinese teenager Zhao Xintong is temporarily ranked first in a single season with the British Championship and The German Masters Championship, so that Zhao Xintong has become the number one seed, while another Chinese teenager, Yan Bingtao, is temporarily ranked 9th and also qualified.
In the previous German Masters, Zhao Xintong defeated Yan Bingtao in the final, thus locking in the top seed of the players' championship, and Yan Bingtao, who lost the final, was also very good, and single-handedly blocked the two competitors, Selby and Ryan Day, from the door of the players' championship, although Selby is now ranked first in the world, but because his single-season accumulated bonus is 1500 pounds less than Barry Hawkins, he is now ranked only 17th in a single season, and he did not qualify for this players' championship. At the same time, the record of 11 consecutive years of participation also came to an abrupt end. The 16 players who qualified were, Xintong Zhao, Luca Bracher, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Mark Williams, Mark Allen, Neil Robertson, John Higgins, David Gilbert, Yan Bingtao, Hussein Wafi, Karen Wilson, Rich Walton, Gary Wilson, Judd Trump, Jimmy Robertson, Barry Hawkins, and as the players were determined, the first round of the matchup was also out.
The two Chinese players Zhao Xintong and Yan Bingtao are in the upper half, of which Zhao Xintong will play against Barry Hawkins in the first round, Yan Bingtao will face David Gilbert in the first round, if Zhao Xintong and Yan Bingtao can win, the two will meet in the second round, because the strong players have basically entered the lower half, so the possibility of the winner between Zhao Xintong and Yan Bingtao advancing to the final is very large, as long as the normal play will have the opportunity to achieve good results. The second half is a pack of champions, with four World Championship winners in the bottom half, O'Sullivan and Trump meeting in the first round, Higgins against Iran's Govefi, Neil Robertson against Karen Wilson, and even Luka Bretchell, who has performed so well this season, in the second half.
In the history of the Players' Championship, O'Sullivan and Trump have both won the championship twice, but this time, the two will meet in the first round, which means that one of them will not be able to claim the treble title. It is worth mentioning that Neil Robertson has scored three times as a player in the Players Championship, but has failed to win the championship three times, and this time he has entered the second half of the zone, and the road to promotion will not be easy.