Ben Woollaston beats Graeme Dott to claim PTC3 title at World Snooker Academy in Sheffield
England’s amateur snooker player, Ben Woollaston defeated the experienced Graeme Dott of Scotland in the final of Players Tour Championship (PTC) Event 3 by the score line of 4-2. The world number 60 unsettled his opponent completely to claim his first pro
title at the World Snooker Academy in Sheffield. With this victory, Woollaston has occupied the third place in the PTC Order of Merit.
The 28-year-old Woollaston had to nudge down the likes of Ken Doherty, Alan McManus and Anthony McGill during his run to reach the final match against Dott. On the other hand, Dott ousted John Higgins, Jamie Jones and Barry Hawkins to set up a Woollaston
clash in the final. Both cuemen had a tussling encounter in the first four frames of the match but after that, Woollaston took the rest.
Woollaston grabbed the first scrappy frame with a stunning knock of 70 to take a 1-0 early lead but Dott pulled level at 1-1 winning the very next frame. The Scotsman, Dott took the third frame to snatch match lead from Woollaston after getting a snooker
he wanted.
However, this was where Dott’s run was stopped by Woollaston and he clinched three straight frames, firing some impressive knocks of 42, 43 and 50 to beat Dott by the score line of 4-2 and claim his maiden pro title under the World Snooker Academy ceiling.
While Speaking to the local media after the victory, Woollaston said, “I think this shows the strength in depth on the Tour, no result surprises me these days. Hopefully I am starting to fulfil my potential now. I'm guaranteed to be in the PTC finals now
and my target for the season is to get into the top 48 and qualify for a few venues.”
He added, “I didn't play a bad match in the tournament, the only time I was worried was in the quarter-finals when I was 2-0 down to Alan McManus. I came back to win that 4-3, and in the final against Graeme I did well to recover from 2-1 down.”
The current PTC Order of Merit top 10 after three events are given below.
1. 11 Ronnie O'Sullivan, England PTC1 10000, PTC2 1500, PTC3 200 = 11700 points
2. 9 Judd Trump, England PTC1 0, PTC2 10000, PTC3 600 = 10600 points
3. 60 Ben Woollaston, England PTC1 0, PTC2 200, PTC3 10000 = 10200 points
4. 10 Graeme Dott, Scotland PTC1 2500, PTC2 1000, PTC3 5000 = 8500 points
5. 25 Joe Perry, England PTC1 5000, PTC2 200, PTC3 200 = 5400 points
6. 4 Ding Junhui, China PTC1 0, PTC2 5000, PTC3 200 = 5200 points
7. 55 Xiao Guodong, China PTC1 1500, PTC2 2500, PTC3 1000 = 5000 points
8. 46 Joe Jogia, England PTC1 2500, PTC2 200, PTC3 1000 = 3700 points
9. 22 Marcus Campbell, Scotland PTC1 1500, PTC2 600, PTC3 1500 = 3600 points
10. 36 Fergal O'Brien, Ireland PTC1 1000, PTC2 2500, PTC3 0 = 3500 points
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