The 7th welsh Open of the 2022 World Snooker European Series came to an end, with world-ranked veteran Joe Perry winning five consecutive sets in the final to win 9-5 to win Trump to win the second ranking match of his career. For him, the title was a challenge after a long 30-year career. It was also his first time winning a tournament on home soil in The United Kingdom, with him reaching the final six times in 30 years.
His first ranking title was a 4-3 win at the 2015 Players' Championship in Thailand to win 4-3 against Ma Wei. But at that time, because his parents were not in Thailand, no one came to share the glory moment with him. This time, his parents, Peter and Judy, watched proudly in the audience as their son raised the trophy. When his father saw that he had scored a green ball to seal the victory, he was so excited that he directly stood up and applauded his son's performance.
Perry's progress to this tournament has not been smooth, he has beaten David Gilbert, Cao Yupeng, Allen, Karen Wilson, Walton and Lissovsky. No one would have imagined that before winning this tournament, Perry, 47, was going through the worst season ever. Due to poor form, his world ranking dropped to 42nd, and he has only scored 32 once so far this season. This victory raised his ranking to 23rd in the world.
Perry's £70,000 championship prize is also a strong contender for additional prize money. According to the rules of the Taiwan Federation, the player who has accumulated the most prize money in the 8 races of the European Series will receive an additional £150,000. There is still the final race, Gibraltar, to be held later this month.
Coincidentally, Little's last crown was won at last year's Gibraltar Open. Although he won the championship a few months ago, his performance in the ranking tournament was a mess. In stark contrast, he won 11 titles in his first two seasons.
The two sides played a difficult first stage to enter the truce 4-4. In the second stage, Perry came up and blasted a single shot to break the 10018 points to dominate the mountain. Then Tert tangled with the locals for nearly half an hour in the 10th set before struggling to equalize, but the inning also became the highlight of his trip to Wales.
Perry then took full control of the game as if possessed by a god, encountering no resistance and ending with four consecutive lashes after scoring 51, 66, 68 and 70 points. Although in the 14th inning, Jr. tried to chase the score through snooker, Perry solved all the problems with a perfect hook and brave spelling. In the end, it turned out that Xiaote was just in vain, and Perry spelled out the far green ball to kill the game, and also shattered Xiaote's dream of winning the championship.
After the game, Perry couldn't believe that he could win the championship at such a critical moment at such an age, especially against an opponent of the level of Xiaote, which made him feel that he was also a great player, not the kind of professional player who only relied on luck in the eyes of the outside world.
Perry also said that he felt very happy to win the championship in the presence of his parents, a scene he may never forget. He also revealed that he thought he would retire after the season due to a decline in the ranking (unable to win the game). Winning the championship gave him a feeling of "coming back to life". (Code words are very annoying, please click to pay attention to moisturizer AB)