On the evening of August 18, Beijing time, the 2022-2023 World Snooker European Masters continued. The second round of the match between mainland star Zhao Xintong and England toughster Robert Milkins has just ended, and Zhao Xintong once saved two match points in a row, but finally lost 4-5 due to the overall poor state.
Zhao Xintong made a major breakthrough in his career last season, winning two consecutive British Championships and German Masters titles, successfully entering the camp of top players. At present, Zhao Xintong ranks 6th in the world in points, the highest ranking player among all Chinese players. Since the start of the new season, Zhao Xintong has continued to play steadily as a whole, reaching the top 8 in the Champions League and winning the European Masters qualifiers 5-2. Zhao Xintong's opponent in the first round of this tournament is compatriot Li Xing, but the latter failed to go to Germany due to visa problems, and he directly and automatically advanced to the round of 32.
Milkins entered the professional system in 1995 and is now 46 years old, but the tough veteran still maintains a fairly competitive standard, and is still ranked in the top 30 (27th) in the world rankings. In March this year, Milkins passed the Gibraltar Open to break into the championship and runners-up showdown, and finally won the "brother" Wilson 4-2, lifting the first ranking championship trophy of his career, writing an inspirational story.
After the start of the game, both sides had started in the first half of the first set, but the timing of consecutive attacks was lacking, and they failed to play a single high score, but Milkins had a slight advantage and led 30-3; In the middle of the game, Zhao Xintong finally waited for a good situation, he broke the deadlock through the red ball on the middle table, and then the yellow ball in the bag transitioned, forming a momentum of continuous scoring, but unfortunately, K's last red ball was slightly unlucky and failed to win with one shot; At the end of the game, Zhao Xintong once completed the super point 50-30 (the last three color balls left on the table), but Milkins's tough ball style was not a waste, he continued to do snooker, and finally got what he wanted to force Zhao Xintong to solve the foul and take advantage of the situation to reverse the situation to achieve a 54-50 reversal to get the opening red.
In the second set, Zhao Xintong was obviously affected by the previous game, playing a little restrained, Milkins took advantage of the situation to 82-22 to go to the next city, 2-0 to expand the overall point advantage - after the innings of the super score, Milkins showed a variety of powerful clubs in succession, looking quite relaxed and enjoyable. In the third set, Milkins came up with a serious mistake, and Zhao Xintong pulled back a city with a single shot of 89 points; However, after playing 11 sets of red and black, Zhao Xintong missed the excellent fighter plane to impact 147 in this game, leaving a small regret - in fact, the ball type on the table was very open at that time, and Zhao Xintong rubbed shoulders with the full score, which also showed from the side that he felt far from the best today. In the fourth set, Milkins regained his focus and directly blasted a single 86 clean sheet Zhao Xintong after starting to lead 3-1 into the intermission.
In the fifth set, Zhao Xintong tried to correct the accuracy in the incoherent rhythm, accumulating points several times, winning 64-16, and the total score was 2-3 to approach the opponent. In the sixth set, Milkins seized the opportunity to not give Zhao Xintong another chance to get up, he blasted out a single shot of 87 points to send eggs again, 4-2 to extend the advantage to two sets again. In the seventh set, the two men exchanged opportunities in the first half of the game, and Mirkkins' mistakes in the middle of the game were more critical, and Zhao Xintong took over and blasted a single 54 points to win and save a match point. In the eighth set, Milkins lost the super point color ball, and Zhao Xintong achieved a reversal of the clearing of the stage in a backwater battle, dragging the game into the decisive moment 65-59. In the ninth set, the two sides were caught in a chaotic battle, and Milkins took advantage of Zhao Xintong's mistakes to establish a lead, locking the score at 59-8 at 5-4. Zhao Xintong failed to stage the ultimate reversal and stopped in the round of 32.