Williams Battles Into Final
Mark Williams reached the final of the UK Championship for the first time in eight years with another battling performance to see off the challenge of Shaun Murphy in a final frame shoot out in Telford.
The Welshman has hardly got out of second gear all week at the 12Bet.com sponsored event but has negotiated a path through to the final despite a highest tournament break of just 82.
His performances against Mark Davis (9-3), Stephen Hendry (9-6), Mark Joyce(9-7) and Murphy (9-8) are testament to his battling qualities and proof that snooker even in the modern era is about more than just big breaks.
Williams has proven over the years that he is one of hardest players on tour to beat, even when his 'A-game' is missing in action. In 1996 he won the Regal Welsh Open with a highest break of just 76.
In the first session the double world champion struggled less than his opponent and managed to secure a five-frames-to-three lead at the midway point.
In the evening, he stretched his lead to 6-3 and looked good to go further in front making a break of 58 early in frames ten. Murphy fought hard and laid a telling snooker with two reds left to set up the chance to steal the frame and reduce the deficit to just two.
Murphy’s let off suddenly shot him into a four frame period of sustained scoring in which he fired in breaks of 129, 107, 81 and 73, outscoring his opponent by 442-8, with Williams small contribution coming from two Murphy fouls.
It had been 74 minutes since the former world number one had potted a single ball and with his opponent in full flight, it must have seemed a pretty hopeless situation.
Somehow though, he managed to make a 32 break midway in the next frame and with solid his solid safety game managed to claw his way to within just one frame.
A 55 break early in the next laid the foundation for squaring the match and forcing the decider.
Having missed one long pot after another, the Welshman found three of his best and somehow pulled off an unlikely win.
The win strengthens his position at number three in the latest world rankings, which he could only laugh at.
He said, “I was going for long shots, knowing I was gonna miss them by six inches or more, but you can’t start turning them down, and in the end I managed to get a couple”.
Last time Williams reached the final at the UK Championship, after a barren-spell he went on to win and add the Masters, World Championship and Grand Prix in succession.
