Richard Mann previews the final of the World Snooker Championship, where Mark Williams will face Zhao Xintong at the Crucible.
Snooker betting tips: World Championship
2pts Mark Williams to beat Zhao Xintong at 11/10 (General)
Snooker’s history has been blessed with some wonderful left-handed players, but without question, the best of an illustrious group is Mark Williams.
Jimmy White is the one who stole our hearts, and for many was the reason why they first fell in love with this beautiful game. A left-hander whose cue at times resembled a magic wand as he thrilled fans through the 1980s and 1990s. The People’s Champion.
But Williams is out on his own, in a league of his own. Different class.
When the Welshman walks down those steps and into the Crucible arena at just after 1pm on Sunday afternoon bidding to claim his fourth World Championship in his fifth blue ribband final, we will all be acutely aware that we are about to witness greatness at work. Should he win, Williams will become the oldest winner of a ranking event, at the age of 50.
I’ve often thought we make too big a deal of the Class of 92 story. That the whole thing is talked about more than sometimes necessary, meaning the individuals themselves get lost somewhere along the way.
‘We’re just great players’, John Higgins once told me when I asked him about the Class of 92. All three of them. Great players, great careers. It doesn’t all come back to who turned professional and when.
In the case of Williams, he has always argued that he shouldn’t be put in the same bracket as Higgins and Ronnie O’Sullivan. I haven’t found a single person who agrees with that view, not least Higgins and O’Sullivan themselves.
Mark Williams isn't just the greatest left-handed snooker player to ever grace the game, he is one of snooker's greatest ever players full stop.
That was surely confirmed many years ago, but a couple of big title wins last term, including when beating O’Sullivan in the Tour Championship final, appeared to put the finishing touches to his legacy, before he then added another coat of gloss by winning this season’s Champion of Champions.
And if that was it, what a career it would’ve been. 26 ranking titles, putting him sixth on the all-time list. Add two Masters victories to that, too. The very definition of greatness.
When Williams suffered early exits in both Players Series events preceding the World Championship to continue a dreadful run of form since Christmas, it felt like the Grim Reaper might be knocking at the door. Well-documented issues with eyesight made that feel all the more real.
Fast forward only a matter of weeks and Williams has beaten two former world champions in Sheffield, one of them the world number one, on the way to another Crucible final. Two huge talents in Wu Yize and Hossein Vafaei were also seen off.
His defeat of John Higgins in the quarter-finals was extraordinary. A high-quality match that was decided on the final black of the deciding frame. Both men played well throughout, but Williams’ blue in the decider will surely be the shot of the championship. No fear, just bottle and technique, and down she went. The Williams way.
Judd Trump was expected to prove an altogether different test. A bridge too far. But Williams hung tough over the first two sessions, using all his experience to weather the Trump storm and ensure he resumed on Saturday morning level at 8-8.
And when Saturday came, Williams dominated the best player on the planet. He won the first session, his superior safety play putting Trump under severe pressure, and he rarely missed a big pot when it counted.
That the score got as close as 17-14 in the end was due to Williams’ understandable late wobble. Make no mistake, he was a thoroughly deserving winner, and on everything we’ve seen over the last few days, he looks value at 11/10 to beat Zhao Xintong in the final.
If Williams is the greatest left-handed player in the history of the game, and he is, few would argue that Zhao isn’t the best player of his own generation, left or right-handed.
This is a magnificent, attacking snooker player whose victory at the 2021 UK Championship was one of the best performances I can remember in a Triple Crown event. For sheer potting and scoring, you’ll be hard pushed to find many better.
Were it not for his subsequent 20-month ban for breaching betting rules, Zhao would have highly likely won a good deal more than the two rankling titles he currently has to his name.
When we talk about the likes of Trump and Kyren Wilson taking over from that Class of 92, it’s glaringly obvious that Zhao will one day need to be added to that list. He’s that good.
That he was a shorter price in the outright market than over half of the top 16 seeds even before coming through his four qualifying matches tells you just how highly Zhao is rated by so many.
Nobody is surprised by what he’s achieved in the last couple of weeks, but while there is no doubting the quality of Williams’ performance against Trump, Zhao’s facile victory over O’Sullivan, to my mind, must be treated with caution.
His scoring was outstanding in that match, and I have no doubt that he will have periods in the final where he scores heavily again, but O’Sullivan made it easy for him.
In truth, I can’t remember O’Sullivan playing worse in a big match, for all he warned us that was coming as soon as he met a player up for the challenge and capable of high-level snooker. And Zhao most certainly is.
The difference across four sessions on Sunday and Monday is that Williams won’t feed him chance after chance. He won’t continually miss easy balls and leave the table for Zhao to feast.
Williams has always been a master of his craft. His tactical play is not talked about anywhere near enough, but remember just how well Trump had played earlier in the tournament, most notably when blitzing Luca Brecel at the end of their match. The same with Masters champion Shaun Murphy in the previous round.
But Williams stopped Trump playing. Trump is a terrific safety operator nowadays, but every statistic going had Williams dominating Trump in the safety department.
I just don’t see Zhao being able to compete with Williams when things turn tactical, which they will at some stage, and across four sessions, he could find himself tied in knots by the old master.
And when Williams has needed to fire from distance, trademark Williams back in the day, he has been finding the target with increasing regularity. His scoring, though perhaps not making the headlines of others, has been relentless. 60 break after 60 break after 60 break.
Zhao will become world champion one day. His talent is too bright not to. But I genuinely believe this will be the toughest match of his life, up against one of the greatest players of all time, playing some of the best snooker of his life.
When that has been the case, very few have been able to live with Williams, not in the pressure cooker of the Crucible in multi-session matches where his match play is just about as good as it gets.
In many ways, this final is a case of master versus apprentice. Two left-handers. One great player, and one who might well get there one day.
Just as was the case in 2018, when Williams surprised even himself, the stars appear to be aligning for one of snooker’s irresistible forces yet again, and at the grand old age of 50, he can rewrite the history books once more.
Published at 2325 BST on 03/05/22
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