In the early morning of April 28, Beijing time, the 2022 Snooker World Championships produced a second golfer to advance to the final four at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, he is one of the "75 Three Masters" who has been racing in the professional stage for nearly 30 years, mark Williams, who defeated Yan Bingtao, a post-00s young player from China, 13-11. Of course, Yan Bingtao, whose age and professional resume are 25 years apart from his opponents, is also commendable, although he stopped in the quarterfinals, he is the only Chinese player to enter the third round since the last four World Championships, and the fourth Chinese player to reach the quarterfinals of the World Championships after Fu Jiajun, Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo. This trip to the World Championships, although Yan Bingtao has regrets, but the harvest is far greater than the disappointment, the 22-year-old has a long way to go, becoming China's first snooker world champion is by no means an unattainable dream.
The two sides drew 8-8 in the first two stages of the 25-innings to grab 13, and what was rare was that Yan Bingtao equalized in the unfavorable situation of falling behind 2-6 in the first stage, and returned the old senior a 6-2. The third stage is also the decisive moment, the two play more cautiously, Yan Bingtao once won two consecutive sets, and then missed the opportunity to be equalized by the opponent. After taking an 11-10 lead, Yan Bingtao began to make mistakes in the position, could not play a high score and had to repeatedly interrupt the attack, while the veteran Williams showed more calmness, playing his accuracy to the extreme, worthy of his title of "the most accurate man in the world" in the snooker field, in the moment of poor positioning, he was also able to make up for it with accuracy, and every time he could pass the level without danger, winning 3 consecutive games and finally winning, but also blocking Yan Bingtao's continued steps.
Although Yan Bingtao lost the final four, but also created his best record at the World Championships, since Ding Junhui entered the quarterfinals of the 2018 World Championships, there have been three times that there are no Chinese golfers in the quarterfinals of the tournament, Yan Bingtao not only allows Chinese players to reproduce the quarterfinals of the World Championships, he is also the only non-British player in this competition and the youngest player. At the same time, Yan Bingtao is also the fourth Chinese player to be able to advance to the quarterfinals of the World Championships, and he also ranks fourth in the number of times he participates in the world championships, the first three are Fu Jiajun after the 70s, Ding Junhui and Liang Wenbo after the 80s, and Yan Bingtao is the post-00s.
In this World Championship, Yan Bingtao left behind the famous game of defeating the world number one and defending champion Mark Selby, won the battle of "Grinding King", treated his body with his human way, and further established his own strong defense, good at doing safety in the world, and playing the ball cautiously and diligently. Yan Bingtao's insight is very strong and meticulous, he can find possible downward lines in many places where players are not easy to detect, and has found as many as 5 combination balls to open up the situation, which is very difficult.
Yan Bingtao will never rush to attack, although young, he can never take the initiative and is also very good at controlling emotions, which is very rare for a 22-year-old player. Of course, his style of play has also been criticized by some people, such as the number of long exams, the average batting time is long, everything is based on the victory of the game as the starting point, resulting in sometimes excessive caution to reduce the viewing of the game, of course, most of these evaluations come from fans who like "Rocket" O'Sullivan and "Fast Gunner" Zhao Xintong. These are also facts, after all, when playing against Selby, the "Big and Small Grinders" got together, and one of the sets lasted more than 85 minutes, almost catching up with the length of the football game.
In the 14th inning of the battle against Williams, some fans in the audience even shouted after seeing Yan Bingtao make another defensive ball: "Yan, I want to pee." And Williams muttered ,"Me too." Although it is just a joke, it also shows that the time spent on the game that Yan Bingtao participated in was indeed longer than that of other players. Of course, these are all allowed by the game, and Yan Bingtao did not violate the rules of the game. A golfer or a star, its style can not be liked by everyone, as long as the rules allow the premise of their own thinking is correct and advantageous, you can continue to insist, go your own way, fix your own style, there is no need to change at will.
In the two of China's current best and highest-ranked snooker players, Yan Bingtao and Zhao Xintong have very different styles but great potential, Yan Bingtao is three years younger than Zhao Xintong, and the future development prospects seem to be more optimistic. At this World Championship, Yan Bingtao not only gained the experience of the competition in the Crucible Theatre, the highest hall of snooker, the honor of the quarterfinals, and the prize money of 50,000 pounds, but also learned a lot of valuable things from the seniors in the long game against Selby and Williams, and their ways and methods and attitudes when dealing with difficult situations, etc. This world championship trip is worth it. As long as Yan Bingtao maintains this trend, stabilizes his ranking within the Top16, and can participate in the World Championships as a seed every year, the championship trophy will have his own and Chinese player's name sooner or later.
Text/Beiqing Sports Liu Ailin