Late at night on April 27, Beijing time, the 2022 Snooker World Championships ended a focus battle in the quarterfinals, and the second top 4 player was born. Yan Bingtao, a post-00s player from China, challenged Triple Crown Welsh "Golden Left Hand" Mark Williams. Yan Bingtao was 2-6 behind in the first stage, the second stage was fully chased, pulled into an 8-8 draw, the third stage was once 11-10 lead, but then williams won three consecutive sets, 13-11 directly took the victory! Yan Bingtao regretted that he could not complete the big counterattack and missed the top 4.
As the 16th seed of the tournament, Yan Bingtao finally achieved a breakthrough after the fourth year of the battle for Crucible, and eliminated the defending champion and number one seed Selby 13-10 in the second round, advancing to the top 8 for the first time. The quarter-final opponent is Welsh's "Golden Left Hand" Mark Williams, the fiery treble winner and one of the No. 8 seed "Seven Five Three Masters".
This time Yan Bingtao and Williams met, which is a reunion of old rivals. The two have played each other 6 times in professional competitions before, but Yan Bingtao is at a disadvantage of 2 wins and 4 losses. The most classic duel was the 2017 Northern Ireland Open final, when Yan Bingtao, who was only 17 years old at the time, became the youngest finalist in history, and at one point was reversed by Williams in an 8-7 match point, losing the opportunity to win the first title in the ranking tournament. The most recent meeting between the two was in the first round of this year's Masters, when Yan Bingtao lost 4-6.
In the first stage of 8 sets, Yan Bingtao performed badly, and even failed to play his own characteristics, the opening 0-2 behind, and then won two consecutive sets to chase 2-2, but then four sets later, he lost consecutively, Williams one shot to win too strong, and finally fell behind 2-6 to end the first stage. In the second stage, Yan Bingtao won two consecutive sets, chasing the gap and falling behind 4-6. After Williams won the 11th set, Yan Bingtao continued to go on a rampage, improving on both the offensive and defensive ends, and began to enter his own rhythm, not only playing the second personal break of the game, but also winning four consecutive sets in one go, and also overtaking the game with color, 8-7, and in the last set, Williams won, and the two ended in an 8-8 draw.
In the third stage of the decisive battle, Yan Bingtao entered the state in advance, playing a single shot of 62 points and a 102 points of breaking 100 consecutively, taking a 10-8 lead. Williams then also played the second personal score of the game with color, scoring 135 points in a single shot, and then played several times in the next set to complete the super score, winning two consecutive sets to chase 10-10. In the 21st set, Yan Bingtao started first, did not complete the super point, and then in the defensive battle, Yan Bingtao luckily turned the bag to score the last red ball, completed the super point, 11-10 lead again. In the 22nd set, Williams scored twice to complete the run and again trailed to an 11-11 draw. In the 23rd inning, Williams scored 66 points to win another set and take the lead 12-11 to get match point opportunities. In the last set, Williams won with one shot, winning three consecutive sets to complete the kill against Yan Bingtao, winning 13-11.
After reaching the quarter-finals of the World Championships for the seventh time in his career, Williams' opponent will be the winner between Bingham and Trump, and the results of the match will be decided in the early morning of April 28, Beijing time, and the two will draw 8-8 in the first two stages, and will also be decided in the third stage.