The 2021-2022 snooker European Masters ended the competition for the quarter-finals, two players of the Chinese Legion performed well, and the "post-00s" young player Fan Zhengyi continued the "dark horse journey" of this competition, in the game against the world's top twenty player David Gilbert, Fan Zhengyi won four consecutive sets to establish an advantage, and finally Fan Zhengyi eliminated Gilbert 5:3, reaching the top four of the ranking tournament for the first time in his career. Liang Wenbo, a 35-year-old veteran with Ding Junhui, experienced a series of twists and turns in the match with Anthony McGill, Liang Wenbo lost two consecutive sets when leading 3:2 and was taken by his opponent 4:3 to get the match point first, Liang Wenbo withstood the pressure to win two consecutive sets to defeat Gilbert in a 5:4 reversal to advance to the final four of the European Masters. "Rocket" O'Sullivan's forward pace is unstoppable, in the match with TomFord, O'Sullivan hit a two-shot single to break the hundred and then swept Tom Ford 5:1 to reach the final four of the Snooker European Masters. In a "turnover war" match, Graeme Dort did not score a high score in the whole game, but finally defeated Ryan Day, who played worse, 5:4 to lock in a snooker European Masters final four.
Two Chinese players have reached the final four of this competition, which is still very worthy of recognition, in the case of Ding Junhui's poor performance in recent years, Zhao Xintong and Yan Bingtao have carried the Chinese snooker banner, especially Zhao Xintong, who has won the ranking championship twice this season, and his performance is perfect. In this competition, Zhao Xintong and Yan Bingtao were eliminated early, even so, the Chinese team still had Fan Zhengyi and Liang Wenbo stand out and reach the final four, and the overall performance was still quite good. This European Masters can be described as a cold one, the world's top sixteen players have five people to stop the qualifiers, after the end of the first round of the main tournament, half of the seeded players have been out, the current seed players are only O'Sullivan alone, which objectively also gave the Chinese players to achieve good results to create opportunities, Fan Zhengyi and Liang Wenbo can go further is the focus of everyone's attention, the two are in different half-districts, theoretically, Fan Zhengyi and Liang Wenbo are expected to meet in the final, of course, this is very difficult. Fan Zhengyi's match with Graeme Dort may have suspense, while Liang Wenbo's challenge to O'Sullivan is completely inferior.
The first game of the semi-finals was played by Fan Zhengyi against Graeme Dort, Fan Zhengyi performed eye-catching in this game, especially the offensive state was quite outstanding, its offensive accuracy was no worse than Zhao Xintong, and what he lacked at the moment was stability and continuity. Fan Zhengyi has defeated Karen Wilson, Yan Bingtao and Gilbert in this competition, three higher-ranked players, and is currently in good shape and morale, if he can play his offensive advantage, Fan Zhengyi's defeat of Graeme Dotted is very likely. World champion Dort is not in good shape this time, but he can stumble to the top of every round of the competition, the first round of the game eliminated Zhou Yuelong's Performance in the quarterfinals is actually not good, but the opponent is in worse shape, Dort finally lucky to advance to the final four. Semi-final Fan Zhengyi has a certain state advantage, but Fan Zhengyi can not be careless, the opponent is after all the past world championship champion, the strength gap of snooker players is actually not large, the victory or defeat of the game mainly depends on the on-site play, has created his own ranking of the best result Fan Zhengyi will strive to go further in tonight's semi-finals, for the first time to reach the ranking final.
35-year-old veteran Liang Wenbo to meet the "rocket" O'Sullivan, the recent Liang Wenbo's state is quite good, because of the infection of the new champion pneumonia, Liang Wenbo missed the German Masters, but in the subsequent snooker Champions League, Welsh Open qualifiers and this snooker European Masters, Liang Wenbo's performance is very good, it should be said that Liang Wenbo has the strength to win the ranking championship again, but the semi-final against "Rocket" O'Sullivan is a test for Liang Wenbo. After reaching the final four, O'Sullivan is only two steps away from the 39th ranking championship, the most important thing is that the high-ranking seeded players have been out, O'Sullivan can be said to be determined to win the championship of this competition, Liang Wenbo may be difficult to resist O'Sullivan's forward steps. The two have played each other 11 times before, Liang Wenbo only won O'Sullivan once at the Snooker International Championship nine years ago, and the remaining 10 times have all lost, judging from the battle record, Liang Wenbo is completely at a disadvantage. Of course, the current comprehensive strength gap between the two is not so large, Liang Wenbo is not completely without opportunities, O'Sullivan lost to the nobody in recent years is not strange, if Liang Wenbo can play his due level, he is expected to create some trouble for O'Sullivan, of course, if you want to beat the opponent to advance to the final, it requires Liang Wenbo's extraordinary play.
The schedule for the semi-finals of the Snooker European Masters is as follows:
February 26, 21:00 Fan Zhengyi vs Graeme Dort
February 27, 03:00 Liang Wenbo vs O'Sullivan