In the second event to conclude on the World Snooker tour in the space of six days, we had another young winner as 26-year-old Welshman Michael White won the seven matches in two days required to win his second ranking title.
Starting his tournament on the Saturday, he had to come back from the brink against Adam Duffy in the last 128 to sneak through 4-3, but from there on things were much more simple to close out his opening day. Robbie Williams and Mike Dunn were dispatched for the loss of only one frame as he booked his place in Sunday's last 16.
First up on the Sunday was a tough test against the defending champion and world number one Mark Selby. A come from behind frame win in the second set the tone as White took a 3-0 lead and though Selby won the fourth to threaten the possibility of a comeback, White closed things out with a run of 68 to put himself in the quarter-finals.
Before the tournament I pointed out that White had not been in a ranking event quarter-final since the Northern Irish Open nine months earlier, so he quickly took care of that. Ian Burns was his opponent for the last eight after Burns beat Kyren Wilson in the last 16. White was clearly the player expected to win and in the end he did so comfortably by a 4-1 scoreline to put himself in his first full-ranking event semi-final since winning the Indian Open in March 2015.
Mitchell Mann provided the opposition to White in the semi's after beating Mark Joyce in a long quarter-final to reach his first ever semi-final in ranking competition and marking a great week for him as he looks to climb into the top 64 on the ranking list. Mann started well with a 64 break to take the opening frame but that was as good as it was going to get. White won four frames on the trot, finishing with breaks of 68 and 50 in the final two frames to book his place in the final.
For a while it looked like there could be an all-Welsh final with Jamie Jones flying into a 3-1 lead against Shaun Murphy. Jones dominated the early exchanges and scored heavily getting out of the blocks with a 102 break and backing that up with a 77 to lead 2-0. Murphy nicked the third frame to get himself back in it, but Jones quickly regained the two frame cushion courtesy of a 72 break to go one away at 3-1. From there though, JJ would only score a further four points in the contest. Murphy kept himself in the tie with a break of 90 and then backed that up with a contribution of 75 to quickly force the decider. A break of 77 in the decider was more than enough for the Magician to perform another act of brilliance by coming back to win 4-3 and make his second ranking event final in the space of a week.
Much as in the China Championship final, Murphy was the favourite to win against lower ranked opposition but things (as often is the case) did not go to form. White won the opening two frames to speed into the a 2-0 but much like his fellow Welshman Jones he had to watch as Murphy took frame three, a run of 84 seeing the 2005 world champion take it out in one visit and closing to 1-2. White again regained the two frame advantage though with his own high break, an 83, putting him a frame from the title at 3-1. In the fifth frame he went a ball from winning, but rattled the final black along the cushion, leaving it for Murphy to close the gap at 2-3 and put doubt into White's mind. However, if there was any doubt it did not show as he took the first chance he got in the sixth frame to make a break of 97, just missing out on the century, to get his second ranking title after a 29-month absence from the winners circle.
In my preview I referred to White as "someone in the draw who I would probably say is due a big run in a tournament" and he certainly delivered. Despite a field that was missing many of the top players he still had to overcome the two highest ranked players who did fly to Furth in Selby and Murphy, and doing so on the final day.
As for Murphy, while there are no trophies to show for it he has had a great week making both the China Championship and Paul Hunter Classic finals, with over a days worth of travelling in between, and there are plenty of positives to take. Two of those will be practically guaranteed qualification for the World Grand Prix and Players Championship tournaments later in the season, which is a great effort given that these were his first two full tournaments of the new campaign.
The next stop for snooker is at the 6-Reds Championship in Thailand, though with no ranking importance there is not much interest there, but that is closely followed by the final stages of the Indian Open beginning on September 12.
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