In the early morning of February 10, the 2022 World Snooker Tour Players Championship decided the first top 4 seats, and Walton, who has recovered from this season's state, played against Williams, one of the "seven five three masters". In the first half, Williams basically controlled the situation, once played a three-shot hundred-point efficient data, won a 5-2 chance to hold 3 match points, but the tenacious Walton withstood the pressure, won four consecutive sets, achieved a big reversal, and finally killed Williams 6-5, becoming the first player to advance to the top 4, which is also his third time this season to reach the top 4 of the ranking tournament, and the state is quite brave.
For a long time, Walton was a top 16 seed in the world ranking and won two blockbuster Chinese ranking championships at the Shanghai Masters and the International Championship. But in recent years, Walton has suffered from physical illness, his state has continued to decline, the world ranking once fell to 32 places outside, but this season, he began to rebound, at the beginning of the season in the British Open, he reached the top 8, but the 1/4 final was 3-4 lost to Williams. Since then, he has reached the top four twice at the Northern Ireland Open and the German Masters, but lost to the final champion Allen and Zhao Xintong respectively, still creating the best of the season. With excellent performances in a series of competitions, Walton ranked 12th in a single season and successfully qualified for the Players Championship.
Williams, on the other hand, remained in a state of "old tree blossoming", winning seven consecutive games in the British Open to win the championship. The Masters still advanced to the semi-finals, only to lose robertson, who won the final championship, in the decider. A single limited time match can also reach the final, and finally lost to Iran's govpher and won the second place. With a single season fourth place, Williams qualified for the Players Championship. In the first round, Walton successfully avenged Allen, winning 6-2 to advance, while Williams defeated Gary Wilson 6-3 and also advanced. Previously, in the record of the two men,Williams had a slight advantage of 11 wins and 10 losses, but it was basically a state of equal strength. The two last met at the British Open at the start of the season, when Williams narrowly won 4-3 in the quarter-finals and won the title.
In this game, Williams took the lead in the first round and took a 1-0 lead; in the second set, williams entered the rhythm and sent a break of 100, scoring 103 points, and Walton scored 60 points in the third set, but williams broke 100 again in the fourth set, with a single 107 clean sheet, leading 3-1 into the intermission. At the beginning of the second half, Williams went on a rampage again, playing the third shot of the game to break the 100 singles and score 102 points, leading 4-1. Wharton didn't give up, and the sixth inning was also colored, also breaking a hundred singles with 123 zeros. Williams won the seventh set in a brawl to get a match point opportunity 5-2 in advance. At the critical moment, Walton withstood the pressure, won four consecutive sets, played 3 pars 50+ level, and finally achieved a big reversal, 6-5 success, becoming the first player to advance to the top 4. In the semi-finals, Walton will face the winner between Hawkins and Yan Bingtao.