On March 28, the Snooker Tour Championship began, the first match, Zhao Xintong faced the world champion Higgins. In the first half, eight innings, Zhao Xintong led 5-3, this score, Zhao Xintong can accept, 2 shots to break the hundred, leading the world champion!
This season, Zhao Xintong won two ranking championships in the British Championship and the German Masters, so in the single-season ranking, Zhao Xintong ranked first and participated in this tour championship as the number one seed. Higgins is a four-time world champion, a 31st champion in the rankings, and the third in history, behind O'Sullivan and Hendry. At present, Higgins ranks 6th in the world and Zhao Xintong ranks 7th in the world. However, in the single-season rankings, Zhao Xintong is first and Higgins is eighth. In terms of seed pairs, No. 1 seed Zhao Xintong vs. No. 8 seed Higgins. Some people think that the Tour Championship is the 4th largest professional snooker event after the World Championships, the British Championships and the Masters, which makes sense, and the first eight of the single season can only be participated, and the lineup is the top.
In addition to the showdown between Zhao Xintong and Higgins, the other three groups are: Trump vs. Brechel, O'Sullivan vs. Mark Williams, and Neil Robertson vs Mark Allen.
Recently, Higgins has been in the limelight, having just won the first place in the "European Series" with a prize of £150,000. Zhao Xintong's last stop at the Gibraltar Open stopped in the second round. In his career, Zhao Xintong and Higgins played 9 times, and Higgins had the upper hand with 5 wins and 4 losses.
In the first set, Zhao Xintong took the lead in the game, playing a single 53 points, 76-0 first to the next city. Subsequently, Higgins found the feeling of the game, and even bombed a single shot of 63 points, 57 points, 69 points, but the single shot of 57 points in the third set was reversed by Zhao Xintong 68-57, and the first four sets, the two fought to a 2-2 draw.
In the fifth set, Zhao Xintong scored a single shot to break 124 points to win, which was the first time to break 100 in this tour championship! Zhao Xintong became more and more courageous, Higgins made another low-level mistake, 65-54, Zhao Xintong won another round, and the big score was 4-2 to establish an advantage. In the seventh set, Zhao Xintong broke 108 points with a single shot! Higgins in his seat looked lost!
In the eighth set, Higgins won 64-26 despite two turnovers, and finally won back a set, falling behind 3-5, retaining the suspense of the whole game.