On April 23, 2022, Beijing time, the Snooker World Championship ended the 7th day of the main tournament, Mark Williams took the lead to advance to the quarterfinals, O'Sullivan led 12-4, only one win away from the quarterfinals. The two seeded players Zhao Xintong and Mark Allen are both behind the big score and face the exit, and the expected Zhao Xintong vs. O'Sullivan may be difficult to stage in this competition.
In the second round of the main tournament, Mark Williams and O'Sullivan continued their excellent competitive form, and it can even be said that the feel was getting better and better, because both of them turned the strong dialogue into a personal exhibition match. It took Mark Williams just two stages to eliminate Jackson Page 13-3, leading to the quarterfinals. Throughout the game, Mark Williams shot a 6 to break the hundred, and the offense was indeed sharp.
Although O'Sullivan did not end the second round early like Mark Williams, the 12-4 lead in the first two stages also lost the suspense of the game, as O'Sullivan was only one win away from the quarter-finals. Facing Mark Allen, O'Sullivan shot a 1-100 and a 4-50+ in the first stage to take a 6-2 lead.
In the second stage, although Mark Allen also had a one-shot performance, but most of the time was suppressed by O'Sullivan, there were many unnecessary mistakes, O'Sullivan played a single shot of 93 points, 67 points, 88 points, 53 points, 100 points, and in the second stage, he took a 6-2 lead, and the total score came to 12-4, far ahead. In the upcoming third stage, O'Sullivan can win one more round to eliminate Mark Allen, and it can be said that O'Sullivan has one foot in the quarterfinals.
Unfortunately, the expected O'Sullivan vs. Zhao Xintong may not appear in this tournament, because Zhao Xintong, like Mark Allen, is also facing an exit, which is obviously bad news. Zhao Xintong has high hopes, on the one hand, he has performed well this season, entering Crucible as a seeded player for the first time, and also showing a good competitive state. On the other hand, he signed well, and everyone was optimistic about Zhao Xintong's defeat of Stephen Maguire.
As a result, Stephen Maguire showed good form and was quite successful in terms of game strategy. First of all, Stephen Maguire played a 93% offensive success rate in the first two stages, which is better than Zhao Xintong, indicating that his impromptu state is better. The second is That Stephen Maguire's defensive success rate is also close to 90%, and the high-intensity defense makes Zhao Xintong helpless. After two stages, Stephen Maguire led 11-5, only two wins away from the quarterfinals, and It was too difficult for Zhao Xintong to turn the tables.
In the above few games, there have been big scores, and only the matches between Selby and Yan Bingtao have been evenly matched. Yan Bingtao's strategy is more clear, as evidenced by the average shot time of 29.5 seconds in the first stage. With high-intensity defense, wonderful snooker, a single-set extreme reversal, and a shot to break the hundred, Yan Bingtao once led 4-2. In three of the sets, Selby scored a single shot of 50+, but Yan Bingtao came behind and was quite strong. However, Selby is really strong, winning two consecutive sets in the last minute of the first stage, and 4-4 should be a score that both sides are satisfied with!