On March 11, 2022, Beijing time, the Snooker Turkish Masters ended a focus battle, and world champion Higgins lost to Graeme Dort 4-5, and failed to qualify for the quarterfinals. The winning Graeme Dort will face Ding Junhui in the quarter-finals, which is definitely good news for Ding Junhui, he is in the upper half of the district has no strong opponents, and the competition for the championship is of course very promising.
After the end of the first two rounds of the main game, there is only one seeded player left in the upper half, that is, the world champion Higgins, considering that O'Sullivan, Neil Robertson, Selby did not participate in this competition, Mark Williams, Karen Wilson have been out, Trump's state is very average, Higgins is definitely a favorite to win the championship.
Previously, Higgins beat Michael Holt 5-0 and was getting better and better. Facing Graeme Dort, Higgins scored a single 50 in the first inning, only to be reversed by Graeme Dort's single-shot 76. After that, Higgins fired a shot of 141 in the second inning, the highest single score in the main stage. The two did not give in to each other, and then each shot a 50+, and at the end of the half, they played 2 draws.
In the second half, Graeme Dort scored a single shot of 62 points to take a 3-2 lead. Higgins immediately responded with a single 76 point, and he also won the seventh set 66-0, winning the match point 4-3. Higgins then had a chance to end the game early, but made a mistake at a crucial moment, and Graeme Dort dragged the game into the decider with 56 points.
In the decider, Higgins made a mistake in defense, giving Graeme Dort a direct attack, who won the long platform attack, and then scored a 50-pointer to kill Higgins 5-4, advancing to the quarterfinals and playing against Ding Junhui in the quarterfinals.
Ding Junhui received two pieces of good news on this match day, the first of which was that he was in good shape, eliminating Scarlett 5-4 and advancing to the quarterfinals. This was followed by Higgins' unexpected exit, and his opponent became Graeme Dort, which was relatively easier. Considering that Graeme Dort is older and consumes a lot of energy against Higgins, and the quarter-finals are played back-to-back, Graeme Dort may have a hard time maintaining a stable performance.
In the previous Welsh Open, Fan Zhengyi defeated Graeme Dort, and then reached the final and won the championship in one fell swoop, perhaps Ding Junhui can also replicate Fan Zhengyi's feat and break the championship drought. In the other two games in the first half, Martin Gould eliminated Ronin 5-4 and the quarter-final against Matthew Serte, who beat Tachaia 5-1.
In any case, there is no strong opponent in the first half, which is definitely a good opportunity for Ding Junhui, the hope of advancing to the final is greatly increased, and I hope that Ding Junhui will seize the opportunity and strive to win the championship!