Mark Williams beats Ding Junhui to win snooker's China Open

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.