On March 25, 2022, Beijing time, the first day of the Snooker Gibraltar Open ended, and eight players took the lead to advance to the round of 16, including world champion Neil Robertson, seeded player Karen Wilson and Chinese players Ding Junhui and Lu Haotian. Three other seeded players were upset, Barry Hawkins, Zhao Xintong and Luka Brechel.
In this tournament, world number one Mark Selby did not register, Stephen Maguire, Anthony McGill, Mark Williams, Sean Murphy temporarily withdrew, leaving 11 players in the world ranking 16. On the first matchday, five seeded players took the lead, and as a result, Neil Robertson and Karen Wilson advanced strongly, and the other 3 were upset.
Title-winning favourite Neil Robertson was in solid form, and although he did not have a single shot of more than 50 points in the first round, he eliminated Liang Wenbo 4-2. In the second round, Neil Robertson shot a one-hundred-and-a-three 60+ to eliminate Oliver Reines 4-2. In the third round, Neil Robertson shot a one-hundred-shot and two-shot 60+ to eliminate Roy McLeod 4-1, and Neil Robertson, who won three consecutive games, advanced to the round of 16.
World No. 5 Karen Wilson also played well, scoring a one-hundred-shot and two-shot 50+ in the first round to sweep Clex 4-0. The second round continued to work hard, scoring 100 points, 81 points, 100 points, 80 points, and swept Andy Hicks 4-0. Facing Ali Carter in the third round, Karen Wilson won with a three-shot 50+ to eliminate Ali Carter 4-1 to advance to the round of 16.
The other three seeded players were upset, and Barry Hawkins lost 3-4 to Zhang Anda, suffering a round trip. Zhao Xintong eliminated Jamie Clark 4-1 in the first round and lost 1-4 to Chris Walkerlin in the second round. Luca Brechel had some regrets, narrowly defeating Barrett 4-3 in the first round, eliminating David Leary 4-1 in the second round, and fighting seven sets again in the third round, losing 3-4 to Jack Jones and missing the round of 16. Zhao Xintong and Luka Brechel, who were out early, missed the extra grand prize in the European Series.
The winning Jack Jones will challenge Neil Robertson in the quarter-finals, and several other players who have advanced to the Round of 16 include Jordan Brown, Jamie Jones, Ding Junhui, Wahdi and Lu Haotian. Jordan Brown was in hot form, playing three 4-0s, eliminating Martin O'Denaire, Luke Pinches and Heatcot, contributing three shots to break the 100 in three games. Jordan Brown will face Jamie Jones in the quarter-finals, who retired in the first round before eliminating Boyco and Anda Zhang to advance to the round of 16.
Wahdi eliminated Maddox, Sankham and Chris Walkerlin to secure a valuable place in the round of 16. Ding Junhui and Lu Haotian are in good shape, and they have not encountered too strong opponents on the way to advancement, but the potential opponent of Ding Junhui's 1/8 final is Higgins, and the potential opponent of Lu Haotian's 1/8 final is Mark Allen, and they will face a bigger test next, I wish both good luck!