On February 9, 2022, Beijing time, the first round of the Snooker Players Championship broke out, and Mark Allen, who was ranked in the top 16 of the world rankings, lost to Richie Walton 2-6 and missed the quarterfinals. In the game, Mark Allen's offensive quality was very low, and he was constantly making mistakes, and he was unable to return after losing 4 consecutive innings. After the game, Mark Allen was clearly unhappy with his performance and felt a bit discouraged.
Mark Allen is firmly in the top ten of the world rankings and in the top five in single-season rankings, and is a relatively stable seeded player. In this competition, Mark Allen drew Richie Walton, who although the strength is not bad, but for Mark Allen, it is definitely a good signing. Looking at O'Sullivan vs. Trump, Neil Robertson vs. Karen Wilson, Mark Allen should be glad he avoided the top players.
Unfortunately, Mark Allen failed to take advantage of the opportunity. Against Rich Wharton, Mark Allen only scored a single 69 in the second inning, and the rest of the time played very generally, especially the offensive end was quite sluggish, and there were many unnecessary mistakes. After 1-1, Mark Allen missed opportunities in a stand-up situation many times, and he actually lost four consecutive sets to fall behind 1-5. While Mark Allen then saved a match point, RichIe Walton sealed the win with a single 74 points to eliminate Mark Allen 6-2.
In fact, Richie Wharton's offensive quality is also very average, only shooting a 74 point in the final game of the game, and no one else has scored more than 50 points. This also shows that Mark Allen's performance is too bad, after the game, he is also very dissatisfied, some gray-headed feelings, some helplessness when leaving, but also a little angry.
The winning Richie Walton will face Mark Williams in the quarter-finals, who also has a mediocre feel, and Richie Walton has hope to move on. In the other matches, O'Sullivan eliminated Trump 6-3 and the quarter-final against Neil Robertson. Barry Hawkins eliminated Zhao Xintong 6-3 in the quarterfinals against Yan Bingtao, who eliminated David Gilbert 6-4.
On the third matchday, the last two games of the first round were played first, with Higgins playing Hussein Wafi and Luka Brechel against Jimmy Robertson. There will also be a quarter-final on this matchday, with Mark Williams playing against Richie Walton, who plays back-to-back and tests both physical strength and energy!