On March 28, 2022, the snooker Tour Championship began, eight players competed for the championship, impacting the £150,000 prize money, the Chinese player only Zhao Xintong opened the opener, and then fought against the world champion Higgins, the first round adopted a 19-10 win system, divided into two stages, the first half of the eight innings ended, Zhao Xintong took a 5-3 lead, Higgins trailed two sets, leaving the suspense of the game until the second half.
The Tour Championship is the last ranking tournament before the World Championships, directly determines the ranking of seeded players, the championship prize money is 150,000 pounds, the first round out of the bottom of the 20,000 pounds, but only invite the top eight players in a single season to participate, Zhao Xintong with two ranking champion, ranked first in a single season, against the eighth Higgins, other Chinese players did not qualify, in advance to prepare for the World Championships.
Zhao Xintong ranked 7th in the world, he is the only Chinese player in the top ten, just this season won the British Championship and the German Masters championship consecutively, Zhao Xintong's strong single-shot winning ability, coupled with good accuracy and fast speed, led to his high game appreciation, just recently he accepted O'Sullivan's guidance, the first round against world champion Higgins, this is the third time the two sides have met this year.
Higgins is a legendary snooker player, has won the ranking championship 31 times in his career, and is currently ranked 6th, just this season, he reached the final five times, won 1 championship and 4 asian, the overall performance is very stable, the last time the two played was the Masters, Higgins eliminated Zhao Xintong 6-2, both sides are the top 10 celebrities, the victory or defeat depends on the impromptu play, who wins is normal.
In the first set, Zhao Xintong scored 23 points to turn into defense, then Zhao Xintong played a single 53 points to take the lead first, in the second set Zhao Xintong scored a red ball, but could not continue to connect the attack, Higgins played a single 63 points to color, in the third set Higgins played a single 57 points, there was a major mistake, Zhao Xintong played steadily, many times to win 68-57, the fourth set Higgins played a single 69 points equalized.
After returning from intermission, Zhao Xintong blasted out a single shot of 124 points to complete a high-quality clearance, the two sides made mistakes in the sixth set, Higgins missed the ball again, Zhao Xintong won the fight 65-54, Higgins only scored 19 points in the seventh set to interrupt the attack, Zhao Xintong did not give Higgins the opportunity to continue to play, directly blasted out a single shot 108 points, Zhao Xintong won three consecutive sets, gained a 5-2 lead, and suppressed Higgins.
In the eighth set, Zhao Xintong scored two red balls, but could not continue to connect the attack, Higgins piecemeal hit, to 64-26 timely stop loss, the end of the first half, Zhao Xintong led Higgins 5-3, when the two will pass the second half of the game, decide the first top four seats.