The 2022 World Snooker Championships are in full swing, with a semi-final matchup of Mark Williams vs Trump, John Higgins vs Ronnie O'Sullivan. In the top four, the "75" sanjie won 3 seats, which is the second time since 1999 that they have fully qualified for the semi-finals of the World Championships.
China's post-00s youngster Yan Bingtao was very unfortunate, losing 11-13 to the No. 8 seed Mark Williams, and missed the first time to reach the top four of the World Championship. At this World Championship, 4 players from the Chinese team advanced to the main competition, namely Yan Bingtao, Ding Junhui, Zhao Xintong and Lu Haotian, of which Yan Bingtao and Zhao Xintong were seeded players. Yan Bingtao has not performed better since winning the Masters, and this season even lost 9-0 to Zhao Xintong at the German Masters, so he urgently needs to get a good result at this World Championship in order to save his bad season.
Let's review Yan Bingtao's journey to the World Championships.
In the first round, Yan Bingtao's opponent was Chris Wakelin, who defeated Jamie Wilson, China's Fan Zhengyi and Jimmy Robertson in the qualifiers. The two sides have had two 9-inning and 5-win encounters, and coincidentally, both matches were in the Chinese Championship, with a record of 1 win each. The World Championships were their first long-standing tournament.
In the first stage, the two sides played very tangled, from 1 draw to 4 draws, Yan Bingtao ended the first stage with a 5-4 lead with a large score of 100 and 7 50+. In the second stage of the competition, Yan Bingtao won 4 consecutive sets with 100 and 2 50+, 80 (55) -28, 106 (106) -0, 77-17 and 85 (53) - 46 consecutive games, and finally won 10-6 against Chris Wakelin.
In this way, Yan Bingtao successfully advanced to the round of 16 and played against the top seed and defending champion Mark Selby in the second round. Before the match against Selby, Yan Bingtao said: "Against Mark Selby, it will be a great game. A lot of people say that we are very similar players. I can't wait to play a 13-win game with him in 25 innings. I will only try to enjoy the game. Mark has very good control on the table. I always try to do as well as he does on Ann Global. ”
In the first stage of the match against Selby, Yan Bingtao only shot 1 to break the 100, but the opportunity was not bad, although he lost 2 consecutive sets before the end of the first stage, he still drew 4-4 with the number one seed who blasted 50+ and defending champion Mark Selby. In the second stage, Yan Bingtao played a 1-shot breaker from the beginning, winning 3 consecutive sets, although Selby then chased the big score to 7-8 with 2 shots and 1 shot 60+, but in the end, Yan Bingtao won the defensive battle in the 16th set, ending the second stage with a 9-7 lead.
In the third stage, Yan Bingtao won 2 sets and lost 3 consecutive sets, and finally broke the 100 with his third shot of the game, defeating Mark Selby 13-10 by a large score and successfully advancing to the quarterfinals. After the match, Yan said: "It was an incredible victory and I can't believe I have beaten Mark Selby, the defending champion, in a 13-win game in 25 innings. ”
With no way to advance to the quarter-finals, Selby is unlikely to finish the season as world number one. In response, the 39-year-old "Mo Wang" said: "It is all due to Yan (Bingtao), because he showed what a good player he is, he played a very good, all-round game. I felt that even though I was better looking than him in the race, in the chaotic 5 or 6 sets he won all. He's a very smart player and he's going to get you a lot of trouble on the global side. ”
In the list of the top 8 of this World Championship: "75 Sanjie" sword is not old, all advanced, the Chinese players are only Yan Bingtao, and he is also the only non-local player in the top 8. Yan Bingtao took on Mark Williams in the quarter-finals, and looking forward to the quarter-finals, Yan Bingtao said: "Mark Williams looks very strong and confident at the moment. But so do I. I can bring him trouble and stress. ”
In the first stage of the quarter-finals, although Yan Bingtao made the big score 2-2 before the half-time with a 1-1 hundred and a 1-shot 80+, the opponent had no choice but to play 1 hundred and 3 shots 60+ after returning from the break, and after losing 4 consecutive sets, the big score fell behind the 8th seed Mark Williams. In the second stage, Yan Bingtao launched a Jedi counterattack, with 1 shot to break the hundred and 2 par 70+, after winning 4 consecutive sets, once a big score of 8-7. In the end, he drew 8-8 with Mark Williams in the second stage.
In the third stage, Yan Bingtao took the lead in shooting 100 and 1 shot 60+, once leading 10-8, 11-10, but at the critical moment, he lost 3 consecutive sets, and finally lost 11-13 to mark Williams, the 8th seed of the tournament, and did not qualify for the first time to reach the quarterfinals of the World Championship. The "Golden Left Hand" became the oldest player to reach the semi-finals of the World Championships in 37 years, and it was also the seventh time in his career that he reached the quarterfinals of the World Championships.
After the game, Yan Bingtao said: "It was a very close game. I was nervous because I was so close to my first Crucible semi-final. With an 11-10 lead, I had the opportunity to play the game 12-10, but I thought too much and missed the position of the mother ball. Although he stopped in the quarterfinals, Yan Bingtao is the only Chinese player to reach 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.
In this World Championship, Yan Bingtao left the famous game to defeat the world number one and defending champion Mark Selby, win the battle of "Grind king", and establish a style of play that is stronger than defense, good at doing safety in the world, and cautious and diligent in thinking. 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. 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 50,000 pound prize, but also learned a lot of valuable experience from the long game against Selby and Williams, including the way and method attitude when dealing with difficult situations, etc. Looking forward to Yan Bingtao's future getting better and better, come on!