On April 10, the third round of the 2022 World Snooker Championship qualifiers continued, with Chinese rising star Fan Zhengyi playing against England's Wakelin. In the end, this season's New Branch German Masters champion Fan Zhengyi did not perform well, although the whole game played 2 strokes 50+, once 5-4 lead to get the match point opportunity, but the opponent won two consecutive sets, completed the reversal, lost 5-6, and did not qualify for the final decider round. Wakelin will compete with the winners between Jimmy Robertson and Oliver Lanes for a World Championship place.
The 21-year-old Fan Zhengyi made a major breakthrough this season, becoming the biggest dark horse at the European Masters, reaching the final in one fell swoop, and defeating O'Sullivan 9-8 in the final to win the first ranking championship of his career, while also raising his personal world ranking to the top 64, once rushing to the top 32. In this World Championship qualification match, he only needs to play two rounds, starting from the third round, the opponent is Vickering from England.
In the past record, Fan Zhengyi and Wei Kelin have played each other twice, both in 2019, and both sides have won one game each. The first time the two met was also at the World Championship Qualifiers, when Fan Zhengyi lost 5-10 to Wakelin in the first round and regretted to be out; in the second round of the English Open that year, the two met again, when Fan Zhengyi won 4-3. Before the World Championship qualifying, the two were in average form, with Fan Zhengyi winning the European Masters and then swimming out in successive rounds at the Turkish Masters and the Gibraltar Open. Wakelin, on the other hand, traveled in successive rounds at the Welsh Open and the Turkish Masters, and after defeating Zhao Xintong 4-1 in the second round of the Gibraltar Open, he lost to amateur Wahdi in the third round.
In the first half of the game, the two were equally divided, and after Fan competed for a lead, he was equalized by Wakelin. At the start of the second half, Fan Zhengyi scored a single 65 points to win the fifth set, leading again, and Wakelin won the sixth and seventh innings in succession, and played a break 100, taking a 4-3 lead with 108 points. Fan Zhengyi also won two consecutive sets in the next two sets to take the lead 5-4 to win the match point opportunity. In the crucial 10th set, Fan Zhengyi made a mistake, allowing Wakelin to seize the opportunity and equalize and drag it into the decider. In the final 11th innings, Wakelin won from afar, directly winning with one shot, completing the kill and advancing 6-5. Fan Zhengyi regretted that he stopped the third round of the qualifiers and ended the season's journey early.