It was a match with two very different halves yesterday, as Willo raced to a 9-0 lead before Mark Allen started mounting a very serious comeback challenge. The final score – 10-5 to Willo – looks comfortable but the last third of the match was extremely tense.
WILLIAMS BEATS ALLEN TO SET UP CLASS OF ’92 FINAL
Mark Williams survived a late charge from Mark Allen to win 10-5 in the semi-finals of the Johnstone’s Paint Tour Championship, setting up his first ranking event final against Ronnie O’Sullivan in 24 years.
From 9-0 down, Allen got half way to what would have been snooker’s greatest ever comeback and his opponent was getting edgy at 9-5, but Williams came up with an excellent break in the 15th frame to get the job done. Having beaten Judd Trump 10-4 in the previous round, the veteran Welshman has scored two of his best results in recent years back-to-back, knocking out two of the top three in the world rankings.
And on Sunday he’ll be up against the world number one, a rival he has known and respected since their junior days, before they both turned professional in 1992, along with John Higgins. The last ranking event final between Williams and O’Sullivan was the 2000 China Open, and tomorrow’s meeting at the superb Manchester Central venue will be a huge occasion.
“I’m just going to enjoy it,” said Williams. “How many more times is this going to happen? I couldn’t pick a better player to play in a final. I’m going to attack and try my best.“
O’Sullivan leads the head-to-head 33-9, and Williams has won just two of their last 24 meetings, but if the 49-year-old can play as well as he did today, then it could be a classic contest. Williams will be playing in his 41st ranking final and aiming for a 26th title and second of the season having landed the Cazoo British Open in September.
Three-time World Champion Williams took all eight frames of the opening session against Allen, knocking in breaks of 57, 99, 105 and 112. When he took the opener tonight with a 140 total clearance, a remarkable whitewash was on the cards, and it would have been the first televised match to finish 10-0 since Shaun Murphy beat Luo Honghao by that scoreline at the Crucible in 2019.
Allen, whose never-say-die attitude has won him plenty of matches over the past two seasons, gained a foothold with a break of 65 in frame ten, then reeled off four more with runs of 53, 79, 56 and 69. But Williams knocked in a long red at the start of frame 15 and clinched the result with a break of 75.
“I was a bit worried at 9-5,” admitted Williams. “I had a couple of chances to win 9-1 or 9-2. Mark played really well after that. If it had gone 9-6 then I was really under it. But the break I made in the last frame was as good as any I made in the match, it’s nice to know I’ve still got that bottle.
“In the first session my safety was really solid, my breaks and long potting were good. I could have easily had six or seven centuries during the match. He had one chance at 5-0 when he missed a tricky blue, apart from that in a lot of frames he was never in them because I tied him up in knots. At the end he wished me best of the luck in the final. Mark is more than capable of winning the world title, as for me, who knows? That’s for other people to say.
“I know I haven’t played Ronnie in a final for a long time but that’s because he keeps beating me before the final!”
The match gets underway at 1pm on Sunday with eight frames, then the remainder from 7pm. First to ten will lift the trophy and receive £150,000.
In frame 5, Willo missed the last red for a 147…
So today’s final will be contested between a 49 years old and a 48 years old, both still in the top 16, and the “younger man” being world number one! I love them both and I’m over the moon for both but, lets face it, that’s worrying for the future of the sport. All of those older players who still thrive today have developed through a tiered system. In fact Judd Trump – who isn’t old of course, but is in his mid thirties – is the last player who really managed to establish himself in the top 8, and by establish I mean get into that group and manage stay there as a resident member for seasons in a row. He too came through the old tiered system. I remember him being very unhappy when the announcement came about making the flat draw the norm. He felt that he had earned the right to be a seed at major events through hard work and that this was somehow taken away from him. If you look at the current top 16, all but Kyren Wilson and Luca Brecel have “grown” with the tired system and neither Kyren nor Luca have been consistent winners, despite Luca’s truly exceptional talent. I’m absolutely convinced that the tiered system is better for players development and that’s why I am happy with yesterday’s announcement.
Now let’s go back to a less “top heavy” point system that “reward” similar tournaments the same way and it will be even better. Tournaments with longer formats should be more rewarding ranking wise than the ones with shorter formats, no matter how much money a sponsor is wanting to throw in any particular event. The old point system was probably rewarding consistency a bit too much but that can be easily “corrected”.
A ELO type rating system would be even better and fairer, of course, because it would take the relative strength of the players, as well as the match score, into account in every match. And, NO, it isn’t hard to understand.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
The tiered system is much better in my opinion and allows lower ranked players to progress if they beat their peers and go on to challenge higher ranked players.
Building confidence as well as ranking points and bank balances!
Yes, a better ranking system is now needed to compliment the tiered draws.
Sorry Monique but for the “man-in-the-street” an ELO system is definitely hard to understand.
Much easier just to have something like points won for each game, like football does.
Keep it simple is the old adage.
As I understand it, there are no more shock results in shorter formats than longer formats. So if all ranking events had points allocated to the round achieved, I think it would be fair.
If anyone has statistics showing how the various formats favour any category of player, they might be interesting to see.
Also, I would remove ranking points from the events for less than 128 players.
All events carrying ranking points being equal would allow better development and discourage the so-called top players from sitting them out. Otherwise they risk being pushed down the rankings more easily.
The principles of a rating system are very simple and, especially in a country like the UK where betting is quite in people’s habits and “culture”, should be easy to understand by most. Rating systems, that are not made public is what betting companies use to set their odds and prices. Basically, the outcome of any contest is a transfer of points from the loser to the winner. How much points are exchanged after a contest depends on how likely or unlikely that outcome was ahead of the contest. The “probabilities” of the various possible outcomes depend of the contestants’ respective ratings ahead of the contest, their current form, and, possibly, of their past history. If ordinary people feel they can understand how betting works, then, they do understand the principles of a rating system.
I would say most don’t have a clue how betting works other than if it’s say 3-1 and I bet £1, I get £4 back if it wins.
The ELO system might well be okay for mathematicians to understand, but ordinary folk need it much more simple than that.