In the first round of the World Snooker Championship, which just ended on April 18, 2022, "Rocket" O'Sullivan successfully advanced to the round of 16 of this tournament with a performance of 122 points, 104 points, 109 points, 64 points, 66 points, 54 points, 58 points and 81 points. In the following matches, O'Sullivan will compete with the winners between Allen and Donaldson for the quarter-finals. His opponent Gilbert regretted bidding farewell to the first round of the tournament, objectively speaking, O'Sullivan did not play well at the beginning, but Gilbert did not seize the opportunity, the main reason is that there is a problem with his own psychological quality.
O'Sullivan is 1-3 behind Gilbert in form
In the first four innings of O'Sullivan and Gilbert, Gilbert was in significantly better form. In the first set, Gilbert took the lead in taking a 1-0 lead with a 129-1 win with a single 56 points and multiple pick-up opportunities. In the second set, Gilbert found a fiery one-handed blast to blast 94-point clean sheets for O'Sullivan to take a 1-0 lead. In the third set, Gilbert took a 3-0 lead with a 65:54 victory over the game. In the 4th inning, O'Sullivan scored 122 points and kept a clean sheet, thus trailing Gilbert 1-3 to end the first four innings of the game.
O'Sullivan led Gilbert 6-3 on a six-game combo
After entering the second half of the first stage of the game, O'Sullivan's form clearly picked up. After the game moved to the fifth set, O'Sullivan took the lead and won the game 73:35 with a scattered attack and excellent ability to seize opportunities, thus falling behind Gilbert 2-3. In the 6th inning, O'Sullivan single-handedly scored 64 points to win the game 96-23 to determine a 3-3 draw with Gilbert back to the same running line. In the 7th set, O'Sullivan single-handedly blasted 104 points to win the game 126-8 and then led Gilbert 4-3. In the 8th inning, O'Sullivan blasted a 66-pointer to take a 5-3 lead over Gilbert at 67-25. In the 9th set, O'Sullivan scored 54 points and 67-0 clean sheets to take a 6-3 lead.
O'Sullivan beat Gilbert 10-5 to advance
After the second stage of the game, O'Sullivan was still in bad shape at the beginning. Entering the 10th inning, O'Sullivan scored a 58-point lead, and then Gilbert won the set 67-58 with a single shot of 63 points to leave O'Sullivan 4-6 behind. In the 11th set, Gilbert scored another set by 82:45 to leave O'Sullivan 5-6 behind. In the 12th set, O'Sullivan scored 109 points and won the game 109-7 to determine a 7-5 lead over Gilbert. In the 13th set, O'Sullivan scored 29 points and went on a mistake, although Gilbert then had a chance to rewrite the score. But he didn't take his chance, and in the end O'Sullivan won the set 69-39 to give Gilbert an 8-5 lead. In the 14th inning, O'Sullivan scored 22 points and made a mistake, and then Gilbert was given four points for a mistake. O'Sullivan scored a red ball and scored another 81-pointer to secure a 107-0 clean sheet again to take a 9-5 lead over Gilbert to take the lead. In the 15th set, O'Sullivan scored 26 points after taking the lead in the mobile session through the combination of the far table, and then Gilbert also made a mistake and left O'Sullivan a good situation. O'Sullivan scored a red ball in the right bottom pocket to win the game 68-0 and bloodied Gilbert to advance 10-5.