On March 28, the 2022 World Snooker Tour Championship officially opened, and China's Zhao Xintong, who ranked first in a single season, staged his fourth showdown of the season with his old rival Scottish "Wizard" Higgins. Finally, in the first stage of the 8-set competition, Zhao Xintong felt hot, sent two shots to break the hundred data, took a 5-3 lead, and occupied the first hand in the 19-inning 10-win game. The two's second stage of the game of up to 10 innings will continue at 2:30 a.m. Beijing time on March 29.
The overall performance of the Chinese legion this season is strong, especially the emergence of Zhao Xintong, who has achieved the achievement of winning the first ranking championship of his career in the British Championship, one of the three major competitions. He then met Yan Bingtao in the Chinese derby at the German Masters and won his second ranking title of the season with a rare 9-0 clean sheet. It was also with the entry of two championships that his world ranking soared directly to the top 16, sitting firmly in the position of seeded player and ranking first in the single season.
As the penultimate ranking tournament of the season, the Tour Championship is a top ranking tournament with a relatively high threshold, and only the top eight players in the single-season ranking tournament are eligible to participate, while Zhao Xintong is shortlisted as the first seed. His opponent in the first round is Higgins, who is eighth in a single season, the two have met 3 times this season, Zhao Xintong achieved victory over Higgins in the third round of the British Championship, and finally achieved a championship breakthrough, but then in the first round of the Masters and the Champions League group stage, Zhao Xintong lost. In the overall record of the encounter, Higgins has the advantage of 5 wins and 4 losses.
In today's first stage of the 8-inning game, Zhao Xintong showed a good state at the beginning, completing the super score with 53 points in the first set and taking a 1-0 lead; in the second set, Higgins scored 63 points to chase 1-1 draw. In the third set, Higgins scored 57 points in a single shot but made a mistake, Zhao Xintong counter-attacked, completed the counterattack, and once again led 2-1; in the fourth set, Higgins scored 69 points to tie and enter the intermission 2-2.
In the fifth set, Zhao Xintong sent the first shot to break the hundred moment, and the single shot 124 points rebounded again; in the sixth set, Higgins was chased by Zhao Xintong as a snooker defense in the case of super points, and completed the reversal, and then in the next set, 4-2 lead. In the seventh set, Zhao Xintong won with one backhand, played the second shot of the game to break the hundred, single shot 108 to clear the table, to achieve a 5-2 lead. In the eighth set, Higgins played twice, completed the super point, stopped the losing streak, and chased to 3-5, ending the first stage. For Zhao Xintong, if he can maintain the state of the first stage, the second stage will be promoted in sight.