Williams Celebrates His 18th In Style
Mark Williams added the German Masters title to his collection of with a hard-fought final victory over Mark Selby at the Tempodrom in Berlin in front of a 2000-plus crowd.
The win gave the Welshman his eighteenth world ranking title of an impressive career., almost fifteen years to the day that he won the Welsh Open for the first time.
Since then he has won two world titles and a host of major honours and has one of the best records of all time for events staged outside the UK.
After a lean spell a few years ago, Williams has found his way back to somewhere near his best and in the past twelve months has been one of the most consistent performers on the Tour and is up to number two on the latest ranking list.
After his win he said, “I have been playing well for the last six to twelve months and I am delighted to have won again at the ripe old age of 36.
“I will keep trying my best and hope that I can continue to compete with these youngsters for a while longer”.
Despite not being 36 until next month, Williams has shown that the “Changing of the Guard” will have to wait a little while longer with him and John Higgins out in front on the latest rankings, between them they can boast 40-years of professional experience, something which the younger generation of players are finding it hard to overcome.
In the final, Williams seemed in control for the majority of the match but after the UK Championship final at the end of 2010, nobody could have blamed him for getting a little edgy towards the end.
Selby won the opening frame with a break of 82, which meant that Williams had trailed 1-0 in each of his three weekend matches after Marco Fu and Joe Perry had taken the early advantage.
The Welshman stormed back with breaks of 56 and 108 before the Leicester-man levelled in two scoring visits in the next.
On the return from the interval, Williams edged ahead only for his opponent to level at 3-3.
Breaks of 53 and a second century (105) made the difference and allowed Williams to take a crucial two-frame advantage into the evening session.
When they resumed, in front of a packed house, the atmosphere was electric and later compared only to the former Wembley Conference Centre as the best he has played in by the newly crowned champion.
The crowd would not be disappointed as two of the best players in the world went head-to-head, neither reuse to give anything away.
The two players, full of respect for each other’s ability to pot long balls, get in and kill off the frame repeatedly found themselves having to defend negatively, resulting in a record five re-racked frames. Both players and referee Jan Verhaas were quick to recognise the signs each time and play was held up for a minimum time to the delight and amusement of the European fans.
Williams increased his lead to three by taking the first of the evening session and when the next two were shared, he looked to be heading towards a comfortable win as he was against John Higgins in the last ranking final.
However, Selby is no stranger to come-backs in major finals, started to claw his way back.
Without producing anything spectacular the 27-year-old won frame 12, made a break of 60 to move within one and was level once again after taking a scrappy 14th frame.
Williams was on course to regain his advantage in the next but potted the pink on a break of 44, taking the cue-ball in and out of the baulk area, caught brown and freakishly potted it into the middle pocket, handed control back to Selby.
A succession of good pots and tight safety frustrated Williams and helped the two-time Masters champion into pole position, but an uncharacteristic miss on a straight forward black with the required balls at his mercy, the initiative shifted once again.
Williams was not about let the chance slip and calmly cleared to move one-up-with-two-to-play.
The victory would be sealed in style just fifteen minutes later as a classy break of 82 took him over the line.
The action moves to Williams’ home event as the Welsh Open breaks off next week and with the gap at the top of the rankings down to just over 1000 points, the home fans will be hoping that their man can regain the title and his world number one status.
