4-0 at halftime and 5-3 at the full time, Fan Zhengyi had a thrilling breakthrough to reach the final four of the Masters and create his best result in the ranking competition. As Ding Junhui's disciple, Fan Zhengyi, once known as a Chinese prodigy, is cashing in on his talents.
The quarter-finals of the Snooker European Masters began a contest, with China's post-00s player Fan Zhengyi facing David Gilbert. At present, Fan Zhengyi ranks 80th in the world, while his opponent ranks 19th in the world. In this Masters Tournament, Fan Zhengyi played very well, winning Hill 5-3, Winning Wilson 5-4, eliminating Yan Bingtao 5-3, and reaching the quarterfinals of the Masters for the second time in his career, equaling his best result in the ranking tournament.
After eliminating Yan Bingtao in the last round, Fan Zhengyi once said that his state was better and his mentality was more relaxed. In this game, Fan Zhengyi continued his fiery feel, especially in the first half, attacking sharply and decisively, just like his idol O'Sullivan.
In the first set, Fan Zhengyi took the lead and scored 56 points in a single shot, giving himself the first point. In the second set, Fan Zhengyi seized the opportunity after several rounds of tug-of-war to achieve a super score. In the 3rd set, Fan Zhengyi did not take the initiative to do a defensive shot, and Gilbert's defensive mistake was once again seized by Fan Zhengyi. In the 4th set, Fan Zhengyi was very aggressive and defensive, taking advantage of Gilbert's defensive mistakes to score a single shot of 117 points to complete the clearance, and the audience on the sidelines had to applaud the wonderful performance of the Chinese guy.
In the 5th set after halftime, Fan Zhengyi's shooting rate declined, and there were mistakes in both the far and near stations. Gilbert went on to complete the super points and scored his first point of the game. At the beginning of the 6th inning, Gilbert gave Fan a snooker shot, who was awarded four points for an empty shot, and Gilbert hit a single 98 points. However, despite completing the super score but failing to score the last red ball and breaking the hundred, Gilbert was so angry that he smashed the ground with his club.
In the 7th set, Fan Zhengyi and Gilbert were not in good shape, and the offensive mistakes were continuous. Subsequently, in the process of competing in defense, Fan Zhengyi made a mistake, and Gilbert scored 40 points in a single shot.
In the 8th inning, Fan Zhengyi made a serious mistake at the beginning, Gilbert laughed at the bottom bag of red balls, hit the black ball error after a single shot of 40 points, and Fan Zheng scored 29 consecutive points to turn into strategic defense. The two attacked and made mistakes, and the scene entered chaos. In the process of competing in defense, Fan Zhengyi laughed to the end. In the color ball stage, while scoring the blue ball, he also bumped the pink ball in passing, and then successfully received the last 2 color balls. 5 to 3, Fan Zhengyi had no danger to break into the final four.
As the first Chinese player to break into the top four of the Masters, Fan Zhengyi created 3 records one by one: 1. He was the first Chinese player to reach the top four of this Masters; 2. This victory was the first time that Fan Zhengyi defeated Gilbert in his career; 3. Reaching the top 4 of the Masters, Fan Zhengyi created the best result in the career ranking competition.