On the afternoon of February 9, local time, the 2022 Snooker Players Championship ended the first round of matches at Wolverhampton, England, and defending champion Scottish player John Higgins defeated Iran's Hussein Wafi 6-3 with a three-shot breaker to lock up a place in the quarterfinals.
The Wizards won the title with a "career-best" performance in last year's Players Championship with a 6-0, 6-0, 6-1 and 10-3 innings over Brown, Selby, Karen Wilson and O'Sullivan. Higgins, who currently has 31 ranking titles, finished runners-up in his first four career finals of the season, winning only the Champions League (Invitational) at the beginning of the month.
Wafi just won his first career title last month, a single-time limited time tournament, when he single-handedly beat Mark Williams in the final to win a proud moment for Iran. The "Prince of Persia" started the game well off to a 2-0 lead, but Higgins drew 2-2 before half-time.
The second half was almost Higgins' solo performance, with a single shot of 134, 101 and 108 points to help him take a 5-3 lead. The 9th set was still under Higgins' control despite its trivial progress, and Higgins fixed the final score at 6-3 after clearing the stage.
"It's good to be able to fight back," Higgins, 46, said after the game, "the outlook is bleak when he's 2-0 behind, and Hussein [Wafi] looks really good." Being able to chase a 2-2 draw when he has such a performance is an added bonus. ”
"He was able to win the single-game title and everyone was happy for him. It's great for Iran and for snooker, and we have another overseas champion. We all know he's a special player and obviously it's an important win for him. I think he may have been under a little bit of pressure, and maybe today I have an advantage with experience. ”
"Looking back on this event I'm happy, judging by my performances last year. I said at the time that I had never played like that, and there were a lot of good memories and I would try to copy them into this event. ”
Higgins will face Jimmy Robertson, who defeated second-seeded Luka Brassel earlier in the quarter-finals. The player from Bexhill narrowly fell out of the professional ranks last season, having saved his professional qualifications with a 6-5 victory over China's Zhao Jianbo in the World Championship qualifiers. This season, however, he has performed well, reaching the semi-finals of the British Open and the quarter-finals of the World Grand Prix.
Robertson won six straight sets after losing one set to reach the quarterfinals. He said after the game: "He (Luca) is the No. 2 seed, so overall it's a big win. The Players Championship is an important event and I have been fairly stable this season and this game has been a good result. ”
On February 10, there will be two quarter-finals of the Players Championship, with Hawkins playing Yan Bingtao at 9pm Beijing time and O'Sullivan playing Neil Robertson at 3am the next day.