On November 27, 2022, Beijing time, the German Masters of Snooker ended the qualifying competition, and the last matchday broke out again, world champion Higgins lost 3-5 to Daniel Wells, Shaun Murphy lost 2-5 to Fan Zhengyi, Barry Hawkins lost to Li Xing 2-5, Higgins, Shaun Murphy, Barry Hawkins missed the main draw. In the end, 9 seeded players were out of the qualifying round, O'Sullivan voluntarily gave up, and only 6 top 16 players in the world rank made it to the main event, which is indeed surprising.
The German Masters first played a qualifying tournament, and the upset became the main theme, and the first 5 match days, including Mark Selby, Trump, Mark Allen, Stuart Bingham, Mark Williams, Ryan Day and other masters were eliminated. On the last day of qualification, two more world champions were out, Sean Murphy and John Higgins, both of whom were in a slump and gave the impression of being unintentional.
Sean Murphy led 2-1 and lost four consecutive games to Fan Zheng Yi, compared to last season, Shaun Murphy's competitive form has improved, but he also lacks stability and sometimes has a more negative attitude towards the game, which is also an important reason for his loss. Higgins was even more sluggish, facing Daniel Wells, who was not too strong, Higgins did not perform more than 50 points in a single shot, and eventually lost 3-5 and missed the main draw.
On the last matchday of the qualifying round, a total of four seeded players appeared, Sean Murphy and Higgins were eliminated, and Barry Hawkins was also eliminated, and he lost 2-5 to Li Xing, which was also a big upset. Only Luca Brecel emerged victorious, shooting 90, 80, 63 to easily knock out Barry Pincis 5-2.
At this point, the top 16 players in the world rankings completed the qualifying round, O'Sullivan voluntarily gave up before the start of the match, and 9 other seeded players lost out, namely Mark Selby, Trump, Mark Allen, Higgins, Mark Williams, Sean Murphy, Stewart Bingham, Barry Hawkins, Ryan Day. It can be said that the top 16 masters in the world were hit hard in the qualifying round, and 10 masters including O'Sullivan did not participate in the main event, and the main event of this year's German Masters is much less interesting.
In the end, only 6 of the world's top 16 players made it to the main event, including Neil Robertson, Kyren Wilson, Zhao Xintong, Lisovski, Luca Brecel and Yan Bingtao. For defending champion Zhao Xintong, this is definitely a good chance to storm for the title, although Neil Robertson is the favorite to win the title, but he has been in very average form this season, and the Chinese player is expected to achieve good results again in the main draw of the German Masters!