On April 16, the first day of the 2022 World Snooker Championships officially kicked off at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England, with six-time winner O'Sullivan and past championship runner-up Hawkins in the second session of the day. As a result, both seeded players suffered a trail in the opening stage, the difference being that O'Sullivan won six consecutive sets to complete the comeback and end the first stage with a 6-3 lead after falling behind 0-3. Hawkins, on the other hand, fell behind unexpectedly 3-6 when facing The Post-00s Player Patch, who made his world debut at the World Championships.
At this World Championship, O'Sullivan, as the world's first, played as the No. 2 seed, he was divided into the lower half of the zone, and the first round was drawn to the old rival David Gilbert, although Gilbert as the second highest ranking player in the qualifiers, but in all seven previous games against O'Sullivan, without exception, all lost, so this game was seen by the outside world as not too much suspense.
After the game began, Gilbert showed great firepower, shooting a single 56 and a single 94 points in a row, and completed the super score in the third set to open 3-0, giving O'Sullivan a downside. In the fourth set, O'Sullivan seized the opportunity to break the hundred, and scored a single 122 points to chase back a set into the halftime. After the start of the second half, O'Sullivan continued to dominate, winning the fifth set and then starting in the sixth inning, shooting a single 64 points in succession, breaking 104 points in the second shot of the game, 66 points and 54 points per shot, winning six consecutive sets to achieve a 6-3 counterattack lead.
In another match, 9th seed Hawkins met the world's lowest-ranked pro in this qualifier, the world's 90th-ranked Wales post-00 Jackson Patch, who made his crucible debut. As a result, Patch showed his newborn calf not afraid of tigers, shooting two 50+ in the first set, then playing a single 55 and a single 84 point in the second and third sets to take a 3-0 lead in the next three sets, and Hawkins won the fourth set to go to the halftime break 1-3. In the next five innings, Hawkins only took the sixth inning, while Patch scored a single 61 point in the seventh and a 102 single in the eighth inning to take a 7-2 upset lead.
According to the schedule, the second phase of O'Sullivan and Gilbert will be played at 9:30 p.m. Beijing time on April 17, while hawkins and Patch will be played at 2:00 a.m. Beijing time on April 18.