The 2021-2022 Snooker Players Championship entered the third matchday competition, in the last matchday competition, the defending champion "Wizard" Higgins continued the excellent form of the season, in the match against Iran's Hussein Wafi, Higgins was full of firepower, he fell behind 0:2 to play a single shot to break the hundred, and finally won 6:3 to advance to the quarterfinals, Belgium's Brechel and Jimmy Robertson's match unexpectedly showed a one-sided situation, Tournament No. 2 seed Brechel won one set and then lost six straight sets to a 1:6 defeat and was eliminated in the first round. At this point, all the players' tournament quarter-finals were created: Mark Williams, Neil Robertson, O'Sullivan, Rich Walton, Hawkins, Yan Bingtao, Higgins and Jimmy Robertson. The third matchday will begin the quarter-finals, China's "only seedling" Yan Bingtao will play tonight, his opponent is Hawkins, known as "Mr. Stability", the winner of this game will compete with Rich Walton for the right to the final, and there is also a focus battle on this matchday, that is, "Rocket" O'Sullivan vs Melbourne Machine "Melbourne Machine" Neil Robertson.
February 10, 21:00 Yan Bingtao vs Hawkins
Yan Bingtao will compete with Hawkins for the final four, the first round of the game Yan Bingtao has a thrilling defeat of "Brother Potato" Gilbert to advance to the quarterfinals, Yan Bingtao lost three consecutive sets when 5:1 lead, but in the last moment to withstand the pressure to defeat the opponent to advance to the quarterfinals. Hawkins's performance in the first round of the game was still steady, and in the match against the top seed, China's Zhao Xintong, Hawkins played his steady advantage to the fullest, taking advantage of Zhao Xintong's weakness in attacking in a hurry to firmly grasp the opportunity, and finally easily advanced to the quarterfinals 6:3. Yan Bingtao and Hawkins game is particularly eye-catching, this game not only for his friend Zhao Xintong "revenge", but also he himself has to break the "strange circle" against Hawkins, although Yan Bingtao has repeatedly defeated Higgins, O'Sullivan and other top masters, but in the face of Hawkins, Yan Bingtao is a win is difficult to find, Yan Bingtao has lost all three times with Hawkins, Hawkins can be called Yan Bingtao's "nemesis", the two have met again, Yan Bingtao is naturally eager to rewrite the embarrassing record of invincibility.
Yan Bingtao and Hawkins first met in the 2014 Wuxi Classic, when the 14-year-old Yan Bingtao and Hawkins played the decider and lost, and then the two met at the 2018 Welsh Open and the 2019 Shanghai Masters, Yan Bingtao ate the defeat, tonight the fourth time to meet Hawkins, Yan Bingtao wanted to break the "curse" of not winning Hawkins. Yan Bingtao versus Hawkins should learn the lessons of Zhao Xintong, against Hawkins can not only consider the offense, of course, this is not Yan Bingtao's style, from the point of view of play, both belong to the steady type, from this point of view, Yan Bingtao and Hawkins are evenly matched, Hawkins Although the top master is always a little bit worse, but he often has excellent performance in the ranking game, he rarely loses in the first round and the second round, from this point of view, Yan Bingtao against Hawkins is afraid that it is difficult to have an advantage, to beat Hawkins, Yan Bingtao needs to play his due level. Yan Bingtao reached the final of the Players' Championship two years ago, but lost to Trump, this game Yan Bingtao is in good shape, if he can pass the Hawkins level, Yan Bingtao will play against Walton in the next round, and the probability of reaching the final again is very large.
February 11, 03:00 O'Sullivan vs Neil Robertson
Title-winning favourite O'Sullivan and Neil Robertson met in the second round of the game, both in good shape in the first round, O'Sullivan defeated world champion Trump, and Neil Robertson defeated karen Wilson, the strongest of the "post-90s". O'Sullivan and Neil Robertson are currently the two best snooker players, the two have played 32 times before, O'Sullivan won 20 times, occupying an absolute advantage, but the recent two have won against each other, this season the two have won twice, O'Sullivan won the 38th ranking championship after defeating Neil Robertson in the World Grand Prix final, and in the Masters earlier last month, Neil Robertson successfully avenged O'Sullivan and finally won the championship. From the current point of view, the state of both is very good, whether it is the world ranking or the single season ranking, O'Sullivan and Neil Robertson are also very close, it is foreseeable that this game will be "Mars hits the earth" as wonderful, who can reach the final four mainly depends on the impromptu play, but one thing is certain, no matter who it is, it is not realistic to easily beat the opponent to reach the final four, and a vicious battle is inevitable.