Mark Williams win first snooker PTC title
Mark Williams won the first Players Tour Championship title on Sunday, beating Stephen Maguire 4-0 in the final, collecting the top prize of £10,000.
World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association chairman Barry Hearn formed the Players Tour Championship as part of his plans to revamp snooker. The first event, won by Williams, is one of 12, and there will be a new Order of Merit to track how much money players win. The top 24 players after the 12 events will go through to the televised conclusion in March.
The tournament pitted the professional players against the amateurs. Williams took just under three-quarters of an hour to clinch the title, making breaks of 75, 64, 59, and 82. Along the way, the Welsh potting machine defeated Jamie Cope, Barry Pinches and Judd Trump.
“Overall I played well, I was solid. I had a bit of luck in the quarter-finals. I was 3-1 down to Barry and he was on a break, I thought the match was over. Then he accidentally feathered the white, so I got back in and ended up winning 4-3. In the final, Stephen missed a few balls and I made four good breaks,” said Williams.
"These events are excellent. I was only there for two days and I'm going home with some money and ranking points. There are 12 events and even if you only won one match in each you'd pick a lot of points up. They're also great match practice for the main ranking events.”
Seven of the top 16 were not in action, and the two-time world champion has warned his fellow rivals they could miss out on vital ranking points. “I'm sure the top 16 players will enter the next one. Players are not protected now. You have to be competitive in every match,” he said.
The next PTC event will be on July 9th.
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