Elephant News reporter Zhu Liyan
On the evening of April 8, Beijing time, in the just-concluded World Snooker Tour Championship finals, Mark Williams successfully won the championship with a 10-5 reversal of Ronnie O'Sullivan with a single shot of 104 points, 99 points, 91 points, 67 points, 66 points, 54 points, and 78 points. After this match, Mark Williams ushered in two consecutive wins against O'Sullivan. It is worth mentioning that this is also the first tour championship title of Mark Williams' career and the oldest player to win the event. With this title, Mark Williams ushered in his second title of the season and the 26th ranking title of his career. And O'Sullivan, who is ranked No. 1 in the world, failed to set a new championship record.
O'Sullivan won four games in a row to lead Williams 5-3
In the first stage of the game between the two sides, O'Sullivan took the lead by winning four games in a row. In the first game, Williams scored 66 points with a single shot and won the game 73:29 to take a 1-0 lead. In the second game, O'Sullivan won the game 107:10 and drew 1-1. In the third game, Williams scored 91 points with a single shot and won the game 91-6 to take a 2-1 lead. In the fourth game, Williams scored 67 points with a single shot and won the game 137:0 to lead O'Sullivan 3-1. In the 5th game, O'Sullivan scored 102 points with a single stroke and won the game 2-3 behind Williams. In the 6th game, O'Sullivan scored 127 points with a single shot to win the game and draw 3-3 with Williams. In the 7th game, O'Sullivan scored 59 points with a single shot and won the game 78:1, thus overtaking Williams 4-3 to take the lead. In the 8th game, O'Sullivan scored 121 points with a single stroke and won the game 121:1, leading Williams 5-3.
O'Sullivan lost four games in a row and fell behind Williams 5-7
In the 9th game, Williams took the lead in scoring 20 points and made a mistake, and then O'Sullivan scored a red ball but was forced to choose defense because of poor calling.
Williams made a mistake in defense, O'Sullivan scored a red ball to get started, and after scoring 32 points, he chose to sink the cue ball to the bottom of the defense. But then Williams still won the game 62-33 with two chances to get started, and fell behind O'Sullivan 4-5.
In the 10th game, Williams made a mistake after scoring 13 points, and O'Sullivan tried to attack the red ball in the right middle pocket. Williams once again fought for the red ball and won the game with a single stroke of 104 points and 117:0, thus drawing 5-5 with O'Sullivan.
In the 11th game, Williams won the game 66:42 and O'Sullivan overtook 6-5. In the 12th game, Williams scored 99 points with a single shot and won the game 105:8 to lead O'Sullivan 7-5.
Williams defeated O'Sullivan 10-5 to win the championship
In the 13th game, O'Sullivan took the lead in scoring the red ball and scored 27 points, hitting the right bottom pocket with a serious error, and then Williams scored a pass to get a chance to get started. In the end, Williams won the game 112:27 with an outstanding performance of 112 points with a single shot, thus leading O'Sullivan 8-5 and widening the difference between the two sides to three games. In the 14th game, O'Sullivan made a serious mistake in the game, and then Williams scored a red ball to get a chance to get a layup, and won the game through a single-shot scoring performance, thus leading O'Sullivan 9-5 and taking the lead in getting the match point of the game. In the 15th game, Williams won the game with a 50:19 performance, thus defeating O'Sullivan 10-5 and successfully winning the championship of this tournament. The two legendary veterans born in 1975 met again in the final of the ranking tournament after 24 years, setting a new record for the sum of the ages of the finalists of the ranking tournament (97 years old).
Williams won his 26th career ranking tournament title, closing the gap on the ranking tournament championship list with Trump and Davis (28 titles) and continuing to rank sixth all-time. Williams won the Britannia Open for the second time this season and for the second time since 2017/18 to win multiple ranking tournaments in the same season. This is also the second time in Williams' career since the 2000 Grand Prix final that he has defeated O'Sullivan in a ranking final. At the age of 49, Williams broke the previous record held by himself and became the second-oldest ranking champion in history, behind 50-year-old Ray Reardon.