Mark Williams makes snooker history with Xi’an Grand Prix win

Mark Williams became snooker’s oldest rankings title winner after a comprehensive defeat of Shaun Murphy in the final of the Xi’an Grand Prix.

Williams, aged 50 and 206 days, raced to a 10-3 victory to beat the record of fellow Welshman Ray Reardon, who won the Professional Players Tournament in 1982 a fortnight after his 50th birthday.

The three-time world champion has now won 27 times at this level and becomes the first man to triumph in his teens, 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s.

Frustrated

Having been frustrated with the manner of his semi-final win over Daniel Wells, he upped his game emphatically to secure the £177,000 winners’ cheque.

The left-hander took each of the first four frames and responded to his first setback by taking three in a row to reach the session break with a commanding 7-1 lead.

Murphy took two of the first three frames after the restart but Williams soon finished off the job, in the process moving ahead of Ronnie O’Sullivan to go fourth in the world rankings.