2022 Snooker Tour Championship, final stage wizard Higgins vs. Australian Artillery Robertson. It should be noted that both players are over 40 years old, Higgins is 46 years old and 320 days old, Robertson is 40 years old and 51 days, and the age of the two is 87 years and 6 days, ranking fourth in the ranking finals.
In the first half of the final, Higgins changed the sluggish start of the first two games, clearing the first set and winning by 1 point; in the next two sets, Higgins broke the hundred with two consecutive shots, making it a perfect start 3-0. In the 4th set, Robertson took the bench and shot all red to recover a point.
After a short break, in the 5th set, in a stalemate, Robertson caught the wizard's error, 2-3. In the 6th set, Robertson hit 147 and unfortunately fell on the blue ball in Theku, and the score was chased to 3 draws. In the 7th inning, Higgins single-shot 127, a bit of a pity, failed to clear the pink black, and equaled the current high score of 140 points played by Xiaote. In the 8th inning, Higgins scored an 80-pointer to end the first half 5-3.
In the second half, Higgins came up and won three more consecutive sets, leading 8-3. In the 12th inning, Robertson scored 91 points to return the set. In the 13th inning, Higgins scored 84 points to reach match point 9-4. I thought that in this game, Higgins's championship was stable; unexpectedly, the suspense of the game had just begun.
In the 14th set, Higgins lost the yellow ball and missed the chance to win, and Robertson saved the first match point. In the 15th set, Robertson combined the ball to get started, broke the baiqing platform, and saved another match point. In the 16th inning, after Higgins scored 35 points, the defense lost the first hand and then dropped the bag, and Robertson saved the third match point. In the 17th inning, Robertson, although he threw the bag twice, grabbed higgins and made a mistake to score a 72 point to save the fourth match point. In the 18th inning, Robertson took the bench and scored a single 93 to save five consecutive match points and drag the game into the decider. The game hit this, and Higgins' title was very hanging.
In the decider, Higgins played on the bench and lost the opportunity after a black ball error after 9 points. Then Robertson passed the ball wrong, big leak, no difficult red ball, Higgins lost the last chance to win the championship, Robertson shot 72 points, completed the kill. Winning six straight sets, Robertson completed the biggest reversal in the history of the ranking finals after the opposing match point.
Poor Higgins, such a huge lead, still failed to win the championship. This season, Higgins, although he has reached six finals, has only won one title in the lightweight Champions League (Invitational), which is a comforting talk.
Congratulations to Robertson, who won the 23rd crown in the ranking competition in his career, tied for 6th place in the historical list with Xiaote, and the number of ranking finals 36 times, super Xiaote, led the post-80s. This season, Robertson is the best player, five finals, won four titles in the English Open, Masters, Players Championship and Tour Championship, and will also surpass Petit in the world rankings to rank third. In the subsequent World Championships, Robertson was undoubtedly the number one favorite to win the title. In addition, after Robertson won the championship, he took a huge lead and won the CAZOO Cup at the same time, but there was no additional bonus for this CAZOO Cup.
Finally, congratulations again to Robertson, who ushered in a season at the peak of his career at the age of 40.
(Image taken from Sina Weibo @ Superstar Online.) Awards ceremony, live signal sadly interrupted. ）