Williams Triumphs in Germany

'Welsh Potting Machine' Mark Williams has won his second ranking title in less than a year by beating Mark Selby 9-7 in an exciting German Masters final at the Tempodrom in Berlin. Mark takes home 50,000 Euro's and his 18th ranking title of his career.

Williams led the Leicester man 7-4 in the evening session but Selby rallied strongly to level at 7-7. A tense 15th frame swung back and forth in front of the sell-out crowd in the Tempodrom, but crucially Williams pinched it and a break of 82 saw the world number two claim the title and the €50,000 winner's cheque.

It was a sweet moment for the Welshman and few could argue he deserved it after two centuries in the afternoon session of the final took his tournament tally to four as he thrilled the audiences with his fantastic long potting. The win also eliminated any doubts of his ability to get over the line having succumbed to John Higgins' comeback after leading him 9-5 at the UK Championship at Telford in December.

"I'm really happy with that win, it was a nerve-wracking experience, both in front of that unbelievable crowd and also after the UK Championships," said Williams. "I was in my seat when Mark was about to level the match thinking 'Am I going to let another one slip?' but then I realised that there was little I could do about it and that relaxed me. In truth, he could have moved 8-7 up himself but the break in the last frame was brilliant as I realised in Telford that you are not safe with just 60-odd breaks against the like of John and Mark."

The German Masters title is the eighth ranking event that the 35 year-old has won overseas, and the Welshman put this down his ability to take conditions in his stride.

"I guess it shows I like clocking up the air miles!" said Williams. "I think I get into a good mindset ahead of the overseas events, I know I'll have a long flight and lots of travelling and that doesn't affect me - and crucially I adapt to whatever conditions I find quickly."

Selby admitted he was disappointed not to win the event having fought so hard in Saturday's quarters and semis against Ding Junhui and Graeme Dott, but felt that he was beginning to come back into form.

"I was struggling before the Masters and wasn't happy with my game, but then I saw Derek Hill and he helped me out and now I think I'm getting back on track," said Selby.

Image and article from World Snooker

From @JanVerhaas on Twitter

What another great week for Snooker it has been. The levels of attendance in the Tempodrom for the German Masters has been almost equivelent to the amount of people that go to the Crucible for the World Championship and it has around 1500 more seats and it is only it's first running of the event for over a decade! The German fans have been the most attentive and supportive audience I have ever seen at a Snooker event and even though O'Sullivan, Hendry and Higgins weren't in the latter stages for various reasons they have shown great support for the event.

A special mention has to go out to the layout of the Arena for the event. Because it was only five days long and was a full-length ranking tournament they had to come up with a unique setup to be able to show the crowd all the matches at once. So they had the televised table in the middle and four other tables surrounding it so the fans could see all the matches at once, which I believe was a great asset especially for people watching at home as you often got to see the matches on the outside tables as they were finishing instead of just seeing the results so a big well-done to the promoters Dragonstars and World Snooker for that one.

For Mark Williams himself though what another brilliant week he has had. Even though I didn't get to see every one of his matches, the ones that I did see he always seems to be quite consistant and always playing at the top of his ability at the moment. The last 12 months or so has seen a great resurgence for Williams. For me it all started off with his Semi Final appearence against Ronnie O'Sullivan in the Masters where he narrowly lost to Ronnie in probably the highest quality match I have seen there in the past few years.

After a strong showing at Newport in the Welsh Open he went to the China Open and performed consistantly well in beating opponents and then demolishing home favourite Ding Junhui 10-6 in the final to give him his first ranking title for years. And throughout this season he has gotten back to nearly his best ever form of his life with several achievements such as winning PTC1, reaching the World Open semi-final and the final of the UK Championship. And at the moment I would fancy him along with Ding & Higgins to be favourites in winning the World Championship in April. It will be interesting to see how well he gets on at the Welsh Open, the PTC finals and The China Open and he can keep his consistency up.

There is not a chance for the players to have a lie down though! The Welsh Open qualifiers run this week and the tournament itself starts on monday. Defending champion John Higgins will be looking to retain the Welsh slate trophy this year at the Newport Centre, Newport with the winner taking home £35,000 and 5000 all-important ranking points just before the seeding cut-off point for the World Championship. The tournament will be subject to a few new interesting format changes, further details here:

German Masters final - frame scores:

Mark Williams 9-7 Mark Selby

0-92 (82), 84-0 (56), 108-0 (108), 1-99
81-0, 0-71 (63), 87-42 (53), 105-0 (105)
71-46, 41-54, 121-0 (96), 27-70
7-83 (60), 45-70, 76-49, 83-0 (82)