Beijing time on February 10 news, the 2022 Snooker Players Championship continues to compete for the first round. In a focus game, the defending champion and 4-time World Champion "Wizard" John Higgins made a strong start, he blasted a three-shot breaker, 6-3 elimination of single-time limit champion Wafi Ayuri, a strong start to defend his title.
The Players Tournament is a high-profile tournament that only players in the top 16 in the world rankings in a single season can participate in. "Wizard" Higgins is the defending champion of the tournament, and he made it all the way to the final last season. In the final, he swept the old rival of "753 Jie" 10-3, and the players championship "Rocket" Ronnie O'Sullivan was 2-on-3.
After participating in the Players' Championship, Higgins has just won his first title of the season in the Champions League. With the champions league in good shape, Higgins threw himself into the defending journey of the Players' Championship.
Higgins' opponent in the first round was the tournament's No. 10 seed, single-time time champion Ayuri. The two have only met twice, with Higgins winning 2-2. In the first set of the match, Ayuri won the first set 74-49 and started 1-0. In the second set, Ayuri defended the title with a 96-0 clean sheet, bringing the score to 2-0.
In the third set, although Ayuri scored a single 54 points, Higgins won 74-54 through a piecemeal hit and pulled back a set 1-2. In the fourth set, Higgins went through a few more moves, pulled another set 72-8, and went into the break at 2-2.
In the fifth set, after returning from the break, Higgins began to find a fiery offensive feel after the challenge of the break, and he used his strength to keep a clean sheet with 134 points to keep Ayuri and win 3-2. In the sixth set, Ayuri pulled back a set 65-17 to equalize 3-3.
In the seventh set, Higgins blasted another 101 points to win 101-17 and lead again 4-3. In the eighth inning, Higgins scored a 108-point clean sheet to win the match point 5-3.
In the ninth set, Ayuri was powerless to counterattack, Higgins through several starts, 106-10 locked up the win of the aggregate score of 6-3 strong promotion, and began to defend the title, congratulations Higgins!