Mark Williams won the China Open in Beijing, his first ranking title since the corresponding event four years ago, by beating Ding Junhui 10-6 for the £55,000 first prize.
Having slipped down the rankings from No1 to 22nd and into qualifying competitions, the two-times world champion has been working his way back for the last 18 months and will go to the world championship on 17 April seventh in the provisional standings.
A match of the highest quality started with an exchange of centuries, 110 by Williams followed by 116 by Ding, who went on to lead 3-1 and, through a run of 116, 4-2. Williams also trailed 5-3 but took the lead at 6-5 with a 65 clearance which gave him a black-ball win.
Ding equalised but the Welsh left-hander finished very strongly with a four-frame winning streak. This gave him his 17th ranking title 14 years after his first.
