In the early morning of May 1, Beijing time, the second final of the 2022 Snooker World Championship was officially decided, and O'Sullivan, the No. 2 seed and six-time champion "Rocket", won 17-11 after four stages of battle with the No. 6 seed and the four-crowned "Wizard" Higgins, and advanced to the final of the World Championship for the eighth time in his career, launching an attack on his seventh World Championship champion. In the final, O'Sullivan will meet his old rival Trump to compete for the final title.
After the previous quarter-finals, O'Sullivan achieved his 13th promotion to the Quarter-Finals of the World Championships after a 13-5 victory over Maguire, officially leaving Hendry behind and becoming the first person in history. Higgins also achieved his 11th world championship final four. As veterans of the professional arena, Higgins and O'Sullivan have met a total of 76 times in official matches in the past, with O'Sullivan slightly dominant with 38 wins, 35 losses and 3 draws. Higgins is one of the few opponents in O'Sullivan's career who can keep his winning percentage infinitely close to major ranking matches.
In the history of the World Championships, the two have met many times, including the 1996 quarter-final, O'Sullivan beat Higgins 13-12; in the 1998 semi-final, Higgins defeated O'Sullivan 17-9; in the 2001 final, O'Sullivan defeated Higgins 18-14 to win the championship for the first time; in the 2007 1/4 final, Higgins won 13-9; and in the 2011 World Championship 1/4 final, Higgins won 13-10. This year's semi-finals, the sixth time the two have met, a 25-year-long world championship feud, still makes the outside world full of expectations.
In the first eight innings, the two were tied to the pair, leading Higgins 3-0 in the opening, and then were equalized by O'Sullivan's high-scoring winning streak, and the two ended the first stage with a 4-4 draw. O'Sullivan opened the second stage to win one set before Higgins won two straight sets to make it 6-5. The same situation was played out again, O'Sullivan showed the moment of firepower, another wave of winning streaks, five consecutive whips to overtake the score, to end the second stage with a 10-6 lead, especially the final 16th set, he reversed the limit to complete the black ball kill. In the third stage, O'Sullivan continued to fire at full steam, firing another 3-shot to take a 15-9 lead, just two innings away from the victory to advance to the final.
At the start of the third stage, Higgins won one shot to return to one set, after which O'Sullivan took another set to win the match point 16-10. Under pressure, Higgins chased back a match point through a wonderful defense. But in the last set, O'Sullivan once again seized the opportunity to play, directly won the game, and finally the big score was fixed at 17-11, O'Sullivan won the 77th "O'S. War" and advanced to the final. For O'Sullivan, reaching the final was just one step away from his goal of a seven-time World Championship title, and the opponent waiting for him was his old rival Trump, who had a thrilling 17-16 comeback in the previous session to beat Williams.
According to the competition regulations, the final will adopt a 35-inning 18-win system, which is also divided into four stages, the first phase of 8 innings will be played at 8:00 p.m. Beijing time on May 1, the second phase of 9 innings will be played at 2:00 a.m. Beijing time on May 2, the third phase of 8 innings will continue at 8:00 p.m. Beijing time on May 2, and the fourth stage of the decisive time will be held at 2:00 a.m. Beijing time on May 3, which is the second time Trump has won the championship, or O'Sullivan has achieved the goal of winning the seven championships and equalizing the Hendry record, which is worth looking forward to.