In the early morning of February 23, the 2022 World Snooker Tour European Masters continued to compete in the last of the first round, with defending champion Selby against former Wales Open dark horse champion Jordan Brown, who unexpectedly lost 3-5 and suffered a round trip. And Robertson is full of firepower, facing borden outside the world ranking 100, the opening shot 4 consecutive shots to break the hundred, plus the last set of single shot 76 points, consecutively scored 505 points, the opponent actively scored 0 in the whole field, only by penalty points to win a pitiful 7 points, and finally 5-0 sweep, really made people feel terrible!
As the penultimate stop of the European Series, the European Masters also has a championship prize of up to 80,000 pounds, so it is a very important event for many players who have a good ranking and a relegation at the end of the season. Except for Ding Junhui, all other high-level players signed up to participate, and in the qualifying round at the end of October last year, the Chinese team performed well, and 14 of them successfully advanced to the main stage. After the first round, there are still 8 people who have advanced to the round of 32, which is already a pretty good result.
As the defending champion of the tournament, Selby is in poor form this season, not only missing the top 16 in a single season, but also missing the previous players' championship, this time at the European Masters, if he wants to qualify for the tour championship with a higher threshold for participation, he must win the championship and impact the top eight rankings in a single season. In the postponement of the qualifiers, Selby defeated Serte 5-3, but in the first round of the main round, he faced Jordan Brown, in poor shape, although he had a shot to break the hundred, but was eventually eliminated by Brown 5-3, tragically a round trip.
Robertson, who had just won his 22nd ranking championship in the Players Championship, continued to play steadily, after the postponement of the qualifier 5-2 victory over China's Lei Peifan, he faced Borden in the first round, at the beginning of the game, Robertson was full of fire, the first set tried to impact the full score of 147, the result was fixed at 105 points, and then in the next three sets, he played a single 101 points, 107 points, 116 points, four consecutive shots to break the hundred, but also the second peak moment of his career. In the final fifth set, Robertson continued to break the hundred, and as a result, in the case of a single shot of 76 points, he fought a difficult black ball and was fined 7 points, but it did not affect his final 5-0 sweep of Borden, and in the whole game, Borden's active score was 0 points, and only Robertson's foul penalty scored 7 points. This unparalleled game has completely become Robertson's personal performance show, and the state can be described as quite outstanding.
In several other focus battles, "Rocket" O'Sullivan against China's Zhang Anda, although Zhang Anda once chased 4-4 in the case of falling behind, dragging into the decider, but in the end O'Sullivan was more stable, completed the kill, and successfully advanced 5-4. Trump was also dragged into the decider against Welsh's Jack Jones, and finally the risky kill was also 5-4. Murphy lost 3-5 when facing Thailand's Sankam, and the same round of travel was out.
With the end of the first round of the main tournament, the top 32 were all born, and as many as 8 members of the Chinese legion advanced, the specific matches are as follows: Xiao Guodong vs Jordan Brown, Zhou Yuelong vs Dot, Karen Wilson vs Fan Zhengyi, Yan Bingtao vs Joe Perry, Pang Junxu vs Robertson, O'Sullivan vs Wu Yize, Sangham vs Liang Wenbo, Yuan Sijun vs Walton, looking forward to their better breakthrough.