On February 11, 2022, Beijing time, the Snooker Players Championship ended a focus battle, with world champion Neil Robertson eliminating O'Sullivan 6-3 to advance to the final four, and the semi-final match between Higgins and Jimmy Robertson was the winner. O'Sullivan's missed finish to the semi-finals meant he could not return to world number one after this tournament.
The Players Tournament is contested by the top 16 players in a single season, which has led to a number of strong conversations in the second half of the zone. In the first round, Neil Robertson eliminated Karen Wilson 6-4 and O'Sullivan eliminated Trump 6-3, with the two winning world champions in direct dialogue in the quarter-finals, which was expected.
This season, O'Sullivan beat Neil Robertson in the World Grand Prix final, who took revenge in the Masters quarter-finals. The third time they met, the two were still fiercely contested, Neil Robertson opened the game and played a single shot of 79, 52, 82, 80 consecutive singles, O'Sullivan in the second set to shoot a single 98 points, but fell behind 1-4.
O'Sullivan then hit consecutive 90 and 50 runs, and after the end of the seventh set, it was 3-4, but O'Sullivan's bench success rate was far inferior to Neil Robertson's, and there were fatal mistakes at key moments, and after a standoff, Neil Robertson seized the opportunity to win two consecutive sets 66-25, 65-38, and eliminated O'Sullivan on aggregate 6-3.
Neil Robertson managed to advance to the Final Four, with the semi-finals against the winner between Higgins and Jimmy Robertson, and it was clear that Higgins had a better chance of winning. O'Sullivan missed the final four, missed a great opportunity, if he can win the championship in this competition, he will return to the world number one, and now it is time to take a long-term view.
In fact, although the score gap is relatively large, both of them have played a good level, O'Sullivan shot a three-shot 50+, the highest single score is 98 points, Neil Robertson shot a four-shot 50+, and the highest single score is 82 points. However, O'Sullivan lost 3 consecutive sets after the opening, which was more demoralizing, he tried to catch up, but the success rate of the long stage was not as good as Neil Robertson, and there were more mistakes at key moments.
Currently, the final four are just the last place to be played between Higgins and Jimmy Robertson, a match that will start at 21pm on Feb. 11. This will be followed by a semi-final match on matchday between Barry Hawkins and Ritchie Walton, which will start at 3am on February 12!