On February 27, the final of the 2022 World Snooker Tour European Masters was staged, and Fan Zhengyi, a 21-year-old young player in China, officially appeared in the final of his first ranking tournament to challenge O'Sullivan, the world's second "rocket". The final was played in 19 sets and 10 wins, in two stages, the first stage of the 8-inning battle, Fan Zhengyi performed well, played 3 shots 50+, and fought with O'Sullivan to a 4-4 draw, without falling behind. O'Sullivan, on the other hand, was relatively average, failing to play a single 50+ statistic. The two will continue at 3:00 a.m. Beijing time on February 28 at 11 innings of the second phase.
The European Masters champion prize money is as high as 80,000 pounds, after the progress of the competition, a number of famous high-ranking seeded players have been out, the Chinese legion's Fan Zhengyi and Liang Wenbo performed well, Lian Ke a number of strong opponents, both advanced to the top 4. In particular, Fan Zhengyi, after successive victories over Karen Wilson and Yan Bingtao, broke into the top 4 for the first time, setting a new record in his career rankings. In the semi-finals, Fan Zhengyi faced off against Scottish past champion Dortmund, continuing to have a good hand, winning 6-4 to complete another breakthrough in the final of the ranking match.
In this competition, O'Sullivan maintained a good feel and form, coupled with the exit of many masters, resulting in O'Sullivan not encountering a single world top 16 seed in all the matches before advancing to the final of the 60th ranking tournament. The meeting with Fan Zhengyi in the final was the first time the two met in a professional competition. Judging from the analysis and data forecasts before the game, O'Sullivan is more optimistic, and the 39th crown in the ranking tournament may only be one victory away.
After the match began, O'Sullivan won the first set to win the opening, and in the second set, Fan Zhengyi seized the opportunity to pull back a set and chase it to a 1-1 draw. In the third set, Fan Zhengyi played a single 57 points in the backhand to complete the reversal and win 2-1; in the fourth set, O'Sullivan won several times to enter the intermission with a 2-2 draw. In the fifth and sixth innings, Fan Zhengyi seized the opportunity and scored 63 points and 78 points in a row, and won two consecutive sets to take a 4-2 lead. In the seventh set, Fan Zhengyi lost a key black ball, was overturned by O'Sullivan, chased to 3-4; in the eighth set, O'Sullivan took advantage of Fan Zhengyi's mistake to directly win with a single shot of 83 points, and the two sides ended the first stage with a 4-4 draw.