Mark Williams and Graeme Dott will meet in the final of the German Masters in Berlin after dispatching Judd Trump and Shaun Murphy respectively in the semi-finals.
Dott is into this first full ranking event final since the 2010 World Championships and is now aiming for his first ranking title in 11 years after beating Murphy 6-4 in the afternoon semi-final. In a high quality contest, Dott took the upper hand early on moving 1-0 up after a break of 66 in the opening frame. Murphy hit back his match high break of 98 to level, but Dott was soon in front again with a run of 78.
The Magician again showed his scoring power with a 96 clearance to make it 2-2 at the mid-session interval, but Dott would take the lead for a third time with a break of 69 to move 3-2 up. Runs of 55 and 69 then helped Murphy to turn things around and lead for the first time at 4-3 and things were looking good in each of the next two frames before breaking down. A miss into the middle on 42 in the eighth was fully punished by the Scotsman who put together a fine 74 to square the match yet again at 4-4. Then in the ninth Murphy was in again on 52 before a poor positional shot let him down, and Dott was able to get and compile another brilliant break to clear and take the lead for the fourth time at 5-4. Sensing his moment, Dott did not hang around in getting the job done. Earning the first chance in the tenth he did not give the 2015 finalist another opportunity finishing the match in style with a magnificent 121 to clinch his spot in the German Masters final.
Williams meanwhile made light work of 2014 German Masters finalist Trump. Breaks of 68 and a fine 109 in the third frame helped the Welshman storm into a 3-0 lead against his fellow left-hander, who just could not get going and never looked like troubling the 2011 Berlin champion. A run of 51 in the fourth saw Trump at least get a frame on the board, but he could not get any closer in the remainder of the contest.
Openings certainly came and went for Trump thereafter, but he did not threaten the type of comeback that saw him lose from 5-2 up to Kyren Wilson in the Masters semi-finals. A high break of 51 from Williams in the sixth frame was the scoring highlight after the break as a second set of three successive frames put the reigning Northern Ireland Open champion into the final.
The Final: (Best-of-17 frames)
Mark Williams Vs Graeme Dott
With Dott's comebacks and Williams floating through the draw in his typical easy style, this sets up to be a brilliant final on Sunday. Dott is without a ranking title in 11 years since winning the 2007 China Open and is in his first final for nearly 8 years. On the slide for a few years, there have been signs of improvement throughout the season from Dott reaching the last 16 of the China Championships, Shanghai Masters and then the UK Championships where he played superbly in defeating Judd Trump in the last 32.
The fact remains though that this is Dott's biggest match for some time, but he has been up for the fight all week. He could have easily been sent home on Thursday afternoon at the last 32 stage where he was 3-0 down to Barry Hawkins before winning 5-3. He then had to watch as his last 16 opponent Mei Xiwen came back from 4-1 to 4-4 before the Scot won the decider. Then of course there was the big quarter-final comeback from 4-0 down to see off Xiao Guodong 5-4, and he pulled off three straight frames in the semi-finals to beat Murphy 6-4. His scoring has been good and he is thriving again on the big stage, and at a venue where he had been a semi-finalist twice previously.
Williams meanwhile won his first ranking title since picking up the trophy at the Tempodrome in 2011 when he beat Yan Bingtao 9-8 in the Northern Ireland Open final. His season has been a picture of consistency, with this week seeing him make at least the quarter-finals for the seventh time this season in a ranking event, as well as making the quarter-finals of the Masters and winning the Six-Reds tournament in Thailand in September.
He is playing some of the best snooker he has in a long time, including a period in early 2015 where he seemed to be making the latter stages in every event he played at that time. Victory tomorrow would put the Welshman back up to seventh in the world rankings, which again is a measure of how well he has played this season when you consider that he did not feature at the Crucible last season. As well as this, victory tomorrow would put him second on the money list for this season, with just Ronnie O'Sullivan ahead of him.
Graeme Dott meanwhile would move up to 23rd in the world rankings with a win, but up as high as tenth on this season's money list where he is already 17th after this weeks run. The head to head between the two favours Williams, but make no mistake that Dott will take some beating here and even if there are some early nerves from him, he has already shown this week that he can recover from a poor start and is relishing being on the big stage again.
Whatever the outcome, this is sure to be a very entertaining clash and if it lives up to some of the finals that we have been treated to this season then it could be another blockbuster.
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