The 2021-2022 Snooker World Championship officially kicked off on the 16th, with four players from the Chinese team, Ding Junhui, Zhao Xintong, Yan Bingtao and Lu Haotian, participating in the main competition, and Zhao Xintong, the world's highest-ranked player in the world and the 7th seed of this World Championship, and Selby, the defending champion, both appeared in the opening match, Zhao Xintong faced the famous Clark, and Selby played against Jimmy Jones. As a result, Zhao Xintong performed exceptionally well in this game, he blasted out a six-shot single-shot winning score in the first stage of the game, while the opponent only played a 60+, after nine games, Zhao Xintong led 7:2, three sets away from the second round of the World Championships, it can be said that the prospects for promotion are bright. Defending champion Selby was not in the best form in the first round, but with his ability to control the game, he temporarily led Jimmy Jones 6:3 with experience, and there seemed to be no suspense in advancing to the second round.
Zhao Xintong's opponent in the first round of the competition is Jamie Clark, who defeated world champion Graeme Dort in the final round of the World Championship qualification round and has considerable strength. Zhao Xintong is the No. 7 seed of the tournament, and the comprehensive strength is still stronger than the opponent, but because Zhao Xintong's play has greater ups and downs, many fans still pinch a sweat for Zhao Xintong. In the first game, Zhao Xintong entered the state quickly, while Clark did not enter the state for a long time, and he suffered consecutive penalties at the beginning of the game, and Zhao Xintong seized the opportunity of the opponent's unstable mentality to play a single shot of 98 points before taking the lead in the next city. In the second game, Zhao Xintong was in good shape, took the lead in attacking, interrupted the attack after playing a single shot of 57 points, Clark scored 16 points and also made mistakes, Zhao Xintong won another round after starting to attack again, Clark, who was behind in the third game, took the lead in taking consecutive offensive opportunities, but he scored 35 points after scoring a single shot, Zhao Xintong won after scoring 73 points, taking a 3:0 lead, and In the fourth game Clark stopped loss in time, and won the fourth set 76:11 after multiple attacks. The score was 1:3.
At the beginning of the second half of the first stage, Zhao Xintong continued the fiery feel of the first four games, the fifth game Zhao Xintong took advantage of the opponent's mistake opportunity to shoot out 109 points and then won, the sixth game Clark was the first to attack and then gave up the initiative, Zhao Xintong single shot 78 points and then won another round, the big score was 5:1, the seventh game Zhao Xintong did not have the slightest mercy, won after playing 103 points, the big score was 6:1. In the seventh game, Zhao Xintong's attack was still active and confident, many offensive and defensive balls he basically chose to attack, Clark seized the opportunity of Zhao Xintong's offensive mistakes to play a single shot of 67 points and won 75:6 and chased back a set, in the ninth game Zhao Xintong did not let Clark continue to chase points, he won 63:25 after multiple attacks, and the big score was 7:2 to end the first stage of the first round of the game. The second stage of the two matches will be played on the second matchday, and Zhao Xintong, who is currently leading by a large score, is still three rounds away from promotion, and it should be said that the prospect of advancing to the second round of the game is bright.
Defending champion, world number one Selby's first-round opponent is Jimmy Jones, it is reasonable to say that the strength of the two sides in this game is very different, Selby won without suspense, but because of Selby's poor state this season, he was eliminated early in many ranking matches, so the first round of the game against Jimmy Jones was particularly eye-catching. In the first inning, Jimmy Jones got into form quickly, while Selby was a bit slow-tempered, with Jones scoring multiple offensive points before taking the lead 73-4. In the second set, Selby stopped the loss in time, and he scored the second set in the same way by scoring multiple attacks, drawing 1-1 with Jones. The defending champion status in the third inning gradually returned, he won after shooting a single 71 points in the heated competition between the two sides, and in the fourth game Selby was full of confidence, scoring 134 points to win, so that Selby won three consecutive sets in the first game after losing the first set, leading Jones 3:1 to end the first quarter.
At the beginning of the fifth game, the two sides fell into a bitter battle, Jones singled out 60 points and then won 71:46 to chase back a set, the score was close to 2:3, the experienced Selby then gradually returned to the state, the next three games, Selby played a single 64 points, 73 points, 129 points after winning three consecutive sets to extend the score to 6:2, to ensure that the first stage of the game to take the lead, the ninth game Jimmy Jones did not let Selby continue to open the score, he played multiple attacks and won 82:27, Chasing the score to 3:6 retained a glimmer of hope for promotion. The second phase of the two will be played in a few hours, and from the current point of view, the hopes of defending champions Selby to advance are basically no suspense, but from the first stage of the game, Selby is not in good shape, and if Jimmy Jones can let go in the second half, he can bring more threat to the defending champion.