On April 30, 2022, the Snooker World Championship ended its 14th matchday, and finally in the two semi-finals, Mark Williams stubbornly chased the total score to 11-13 with the maximum difference of seven innings, and will play judd Trump in the fourth stage. Ronnie O'Sullivan won five straight sets with a 5-6 trail to lead John Higgins 10-6 in two stages, with the two sides facing the final two stages of the match. Both semi-finals were played brilliantly, but in the 16th inning of O'Sullivan's match against Higgins, a scene that seemed highly controversial to Chinese fans took place, but in England it was calm.
First of all, let's review the situation in the 18th round of the game between the mainland player Yan Bingtao and Selby, when Yan Bingtao led 10-7 overall, the innings were 48-52 behind, and there were 22 points left in the table to enter the color ball competition, at this time, Selby left Yan Bingtao's coffee ball seemed to be nothing, the down ball line seemed to be bitten by the blue ball, the game had entered the decisive stage, each ball was very important, Yan Bingtao considered it again and again and asked the referee to wipe the mother ball, Yan Bingtao clarified after the game that this move was only because he was very nervous at the time. In order to ease the atmosphere of the scene, it was just a joke, but this move was not only rejected by the referee on duty, but also criticized by many celebrities, who thought that it was a "chicken thief" behavior.
Commentator David Hendon, who sat in the European studio, said: "It's simply too much, really, referee Rob Spencer can't accept this request. Jimmy White also supported this statement, arguing that Yan Bingtao could not do it even if he wanted to win under pressure, and Alain McManus said: "We don't know what Yan Bingtao was thinking at the time, but I don't like to see this scene, Mark Selby doesn't like it, and I believe most players on the tour will not do it." Many celebrities have criticized Yan Bingtao's behavior, believing that Yan Bingtao should not play small tricks and tricks.
But soon the critics of the celebrities were punched in the face, first of all, Yan Bingtao's opponent Mark Selby did not think so, Selby believed that Yan Bingtao did not necessarily have a special purpose, and more ironically, in the semi-final between O'Sullivan and Higgins, a similar scene occurred, but the celebrities who had previously criticized were collectively silent, and did not question the players and referees concerned.
The situation occurred in the 16th inning of the semi-final between O'Sullivan and Higgins, when the game was also very critical, Higgins led 58-15, there were 43 points left on the table, O'Sullivan cleared the table to equalize the score into the black war, just at this time, O'Sullivan spelled in the red ball and went to a large angle to cut the black ball, the position of the black ball and the pink ball was very similar to the position of the mother ball and the blue ball at that time, the same seemed to be nothing, at this time O'Sullivan also proposed to the referee to wipe the black ball, But the referee on duty, Marcel Eikat, did not raise any questions, nor did anyone stand up to O'Sullivan for this move.
The result is staggering, and we can't imagine if O'Sullivan's black ball had been replaced by another player, the referee would have responded differently, and what would have happened to the comments table. I think McManus' apology said it all, and Alain added his opinion on his social platform afterwards: "After reflection and looking back at the game, my view of the Yan Bingtao incident last night was wrong. We often have to react quickly to what's going on outside, which can be tricky at the time. Even though I've been making mistakes, I'll continue to make judgments about what I see. ”