On February 26, Beijing time, the 2022 Snooker European Masters continued. The tournament is now in the semi-finals. China's snooker results are gratifying, occupying half of the top four, and young player Fan Zhengyi and veteran Liang Wenbo have both reached the top four after four rounds of hard fighting. Among them, the 21-year-old young player Fan Zhengyi made people shine and brought huge surprises to fans. 20-56, 12-8, China's young players will be perfectly transformed, and the biggest dark horse is expected to be black to the end!
In this season, the performance of the Chinese snooker army is booming, of which Zhao Xintong and Yan Bingtao are the most prominent. Zhao Xintong won the British Championship and the German Masters championship successively. Yan Bingtao also won the second place in the German Masters and reached the quarter-finals of the ranking tournament many times. The two players brought us one surprise after another. Their wonderful performances also inspired other young Chinese snooker players to work hard and bravely. Fan Zhengyi is a typical representative of this.
Back to the title, let's start with two sets of data. In the first few years of entering the professional arena, Fan Zhengyi performed very badly and did not meet the expectations of fans. In the first three seasons of his career, Fan Zhengyi played a total of 77 games, achieving a record of 20 wins, 56 losses and 1 draw, with a winning rate of only 26%, less than 30%. This means that most of the competitions are either falling into the qualifiers or a one-round two-wheel tour. In this season, watching his friends around him make breakthroughs one by one, Fan Zhengyi is not far behind, he practices hard, training in the ball room for more than 8 hours every day, the basic skills are more solid, and the mentality is more stable. The kung fu paid off, and when he came to the real competition, his skills and achievements have improved significantly. So far this season, Fan Zhengyi has played a total of 20 games, including 12 wins and 8 losses, with a winning rate of around 60%. It has taken a qualitative leap from the previous three seasons. Fan Zheng made a leap forward and sentenced the two of them.
Coming to this European Masters, Fan Zhengyi is even more courageous. In the first round, Fan Zhengyi won 5-3 to Lick Hill. In the second round against Karen Wilson, who is ranked No. 5 in the world, Fan Zhengyi fought with him in 9 sets and finally defeated the 90-year-old Xiao Tianwang to advance, breaking out a big cold. In the third round, Fan Zhengyi defeated the strongest 00 after Yan Bingtao 5-3, continued his dark horse journey, 1/4 final, Fan Yi did not stop there, facing david Gilbert, who eliminated Barry Hawkins, Fan Zhengyi first started 4-0, and finally won 5-3 to reach the final four. 5-4，5-3，5-3！ Fan Zhengyi continued to gram on! Along the way, the strength of the opponents in the three games after Fan Zhengyi is the level of the world's top sixteen, and the three consecutive games have been down the gram, which is a miracle in itself.
In the following semi-finals, facing the 2006 World Championship champion Dortmund, Fan Zhengyi did not have the slightest fear. At this time, both his competitive state and self-confidence are significantly higher than his opponents. Dort stumbled all the way to the top, going through three 9-inning battles, and for the 44-year-old, physical and mental strength were hugely consumed. Fan Zhengyi is young and vigorous, and is expected to win the opponent to the final as a dark horse. If you really reach the final, facing O'Sullivan, for Fan Zhengyi, it is already a huge success, of course, if they all come to the final, facing a champion who is only one step away, who will not have the dream to let go and fight?