Awesome Ding Junhui wins PTC Grand Finals!

Ding came from 3-0 down to defeat Neil Robertson 4-3 in a scintillating final in Galway. It was a superb way to round off St Patrick’s Day in Galway

Robertson was ruthless in opening a 3-0 lead, clinically taking his chances when they came. Ding had done nothing wrong; this was just the highest level of match play from the Aussie. It wasn’t until the 4^th frame that Ding got a chance and what followed was four near perfect frames, with a little luck along the way.

Ding was on a 99% pot success & 100% long pot success midway through the final frame, Robertson’s 95% wasn’t too shabby either but last night it wasn’t enough. Robertson was graceful in defeat, realising he had played well and had just run into an opponent at the top of his game.  

20 frames across five matches were required to win this title, Ding won eight of those frames with centuries, one of which was a 147. This sort of display of scoring and consistency throughout the week won’t have gone unnoticed from his peers. However this event was a sprint, 20 frames won won’t even be enough to get through the first two rounds at the World Championships. So Ding has showed he can do it over the short format, he has still the crack the 17 day marathon that the Crucible is.

This event was well attended but badly organised, six matches a day were too many and some matches didn’t begin till after 11. This wasn’t fair for the player or the fans; hopefully World Snooker will look into this for next year’s event.