Williams Makes His Mark In China
Mark Williams rolled back the years to lift his first ranking title since 2006 with a superb ten-frames-to-six victory against Ding Junhui in the final of the China Open.
In one of the best finals of all time, both players were at the top of their game, making a break of 50-plus in all but two of the 16 frames.
The two-time world champion soaked up Ding's best in the first session, escaping with only a one frame deficit to trail 5-4.
The Chinese player who has scored more ranking points in the current season than any other player produced some blistering snooker but could not shake off his experienced opponent.
Williams started the final in imprssive fashion with a break of 110 to lead 1-0.
Ding followed though with runs of 127, 53, 70 to lead 3-1 at the mid-session interval.
The next four frames were shared with further breaks of 116, and 82 from Ding and 68 and 55 from the Welshman.
Frame nine was pivotal, with either one frame or three frame advantage for the Chinese number one at stake.
Williams got in early but lost position, Ding looked like making another frame winning break but missed with balls in open play. Williams stepped in, cleared up and would have rested easier at half-time.
The evening session continued in the same heavy scoring vein with Williams making a solid 81 break to level the scores.
Ding looked to be retaking the lead in the next but missed on 47 needing just one red to leave his opponent requiriring snookers.
A trademark five-red clearance took Williams in front for the first time since the first frame of the match.
Ding levelled again in the next with a 73, but Williams could sense victory and won the next four frames allowing Ding only 72 points and seal his 17th ranking tournament win.
"It feels great to win again", the newly crowned champion told Global-snooker.com.
"It has been a while and I have taken some stick in recent times, but it all seems worth it now".
