Mark Williams made snooker history by becoming the oldest ranking event winner after beating Shaun Murphy 10-3 in the Xi’an Grand Prix final.
At 50 years and 206 days, Williams surpasses Ray Reardon’s record (50 years and 14 days) from 1982 with a dominant display to secure his 27th career ranking title and first in 18 months.
The Welshman also moves up to fourth in the rankings ahead of Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins, with the trio still among snooker’s elite 33 years after joining the professional tour together.
Williams started the match strongly with a break of 75 to take an immediate lead then capitalised on missed opportunities for Murphy to storm into a 4-0 lead.
Although Murphy got a frame on the board, Williams won a long sixth which lasted 40 minutes as he established a 5-1 advantage and consolidated that by winning the last two frames of the first session with a 127 clearance to be 7-1 up.
Williams won his first ranking title since the 2024 Tour Championship
When the players returned from the interval, Williams picked up where he left off with another century but Murphy hit back by winning the next two frames but still trailed 8-3.
Any sign of a comeback was quickly evaded by Williams though as breaks of 65 and 61 on his way to claiming the last two frames sealed a special victory in a one-sided final to pick up the £177,000 champion’s prize.
