In the early morning of April 24, a focus battle in the second round of the 2022 Snooker World Championships, China's post-00s yan Bingtao challenged the four champions and the defending champion of the tournament's top seed, Selby, and the result was a 13-10 victory after three stages of fierce fighting, achieving the first breakthrough in the top 8 of the World Championships in his career. In the 18th round of the game, Yan Bingtao in the handling of the key ball, a small action caused a heated discussion, although in the end he successfully won the game, but after the game still triggered a lot of celebrities and commentators to discuss, criticizing Yan Bingtao on the field of suspicion of playing a little clever.
Yan Bingtao's match with Selby, from a 4-4 draw in the first stage to a 9-7 lead in the second stage, Yan Bingtao tilted the balance of victory in the game to himself little by little. After the start of the third stage, Yan Bingtao continued to exert his strength, winning two consecutive sets to take an 11-7 lead. But in the 18th set he won, Yan Bingtao was in the case of Selby taking the lead, the back of the force to chase points, to the clear ball stage, the key coffee ball, let him into a dilemma, once hesitated for two or three minutes.
At that time, although the coffee ball was near the bottom bag mouth, it blocked the coffee ball's lower ball line due to the meaning of the blue ball, so Yan Bingtao was a little hesitant to choose to attack or defend. After several attempts to make pole attempts and stops, opponent Selby, as well as the audience and the referee, couldn't help but laugh, and he himself laughed bitterly. He even asked the referee if he could help wipe the mother ball, but the referee on duty refused his request. After many hesitations, Yan Bingtao finally attacked decisively, scored a coffee ball, and completed the super score to win the game, establishing a big lead.
After the game, European sports expert commentators discussed Yan Bingtao's action behavior, in which the well-known snooker commentator David Huntton said that Yan Bingtao's behavior was simply too much, and the referee could not accept this request. In their view, although players have the right to ask the referee to wipe the mother ball, the referee also has the right to make a judgment at a critical moment, refuse the occurrence of suspected unfair behavior, and put an end to such clever behavior.
On the contrary, Yan Bingtao's opponent Selby calmly said that he did not think that Yan Bingtao had a special purpose, but the position of the mother ball at that time was somewhat special, and it was at the key ball moment, so if the referee wiped the mother ball at that time, and then put it back, if there was a deviation, it would lead to the coffee ball being easily scored. Of course, in the end, Yan Bingtao insisted on his own judgment, or a strong attack, scored and completed the super score to win.