10 days, two tournaments won, £82,000 pocketed. Not bad for
someone that was only 23 years of age at the time is it? That is exactly what
Michael White must have been thinking when he followed up victory at the one
frame Shoot-Out in Blackpool with his first ever full ranking event title in
the shape of the Indian Open.
Starting off in Blackpool the 10 minute one frame Shoot-out
really is just a bit of fun but with £32,000 prize which is a lot to some of
the lower ranked players involved. Anything can happen over one frame but he
started off with a convincing win over Robert Milkins. He then beat another of
the favourites for the title in Judd Trump. Next up was a big win against Tom
Ford to get into the quarter-finals on the final evening. He never looked in
trouble as once again he beat Ben Woollaston easily to make the semi-finals. In
the semi-finals he got a huge win against Kyren Wilson.
Then in the final he took on Xiao Guodong and it looked for
all money that Guodong was going to win taking a good lead into the final
minute but when he missed a red, White sprinted round to pot two reds and
colours in the dying seconds and snatch the title from the Chinaman’s clutches
and Michael was absolutely delighted.
Out he flew to India, and starting out in the Last 64 it
certainly wasn’t an easy match against China’s Cao Yupeng coming through 4-3
but as always it’s just a case of grinding it out in the first round. In round
two he took on another player like himself who was climbing the rankings and
improving all the time against Matt Selt and I actually expected Selt to win
this one such was his form but White ran out a 4-2 victor, finishing off that
match with a century.
As far as Last 16 draws go taking on Li Hang is not the
hardest one you will ever have and it certainly wasn’t the toughest match of
White’s week and it was a straightforward enough 4-2 win. Once again he would
have been the favourite going into his quarter-final tie with Chris Wakelin.
However, it didn’t start off easy for White as he went 2-1 down early on, but
he came back strong to win all of the next three frames with runs of 71 and 99
along the way to win 4-2.
In the semi-finals was enough very tough test against in
form player and one of his idols growing up as the man at the top of Welsh
snooker, Mark Williams. It looked like a close match on paper but despite
taking the opening frame, Mark found himself 3-1 behind early on after another
century from White. A break of 55 from Mark kept him in it but White was able
to finish off the match in the next with a contribution of 87 sealing yet
another 4-2 win.
Not many full ranking event finals are played over the best-of-9
frames which in my opinion does take away some of the prestige, but it was
still going to be a very tough match against Ricky Walden, who already had a
ranking event win to his name in Asia that season. Walden though was never
really in the match only scoring a total of 27 points in it and losing 5-0, as
Michael ran riot making breaks of 81, 77, 58 and his highest of the match, an
85 to finish the job and win his first ever ranking event title and a
thoroughly deserved one too.
What a period that was for Michael White to win two
tournaments as a 23 year old, propel himself up the rankings with his win in
India and get £82,000 in all which is not bad at all for a youngster.
The joy he must have felt is tough to describe, and that is
why his successes are my moment of the month overall for the month of March.
Be sure to re-visit the blog tomorrow for my April nomination of the Moment of the Year countdown.
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