Williams takes Guildford glory - 01/09/2011

Mark Williams got his 2011 PartyPoker.com Premier League campaign off to the perfect start by winning event two at the Guildford Spectrum on Thursday night.

The World No 1 beat Shaun Murphy 3-1 in the final to take a maximum six points and join fellow Welshman Matthew Stevens at the top of the table.

Rolling Stone guitarist Ronnie Wood, a close friend of Ronnie O'Sullivan and Jimmy White, turned up to watch the action, joined by glamorous Brazilian girlfriend Ana Araujo. But Wood couldn't get much satisfaction from the performances of O'Sullivan and White as the Londoners were beaten in the semi-finals.

Williams looked in control in both of his matches

"I'm really pleased to get off to a good start and to play well," said Williams. "It wasn't easy and there were a few close frames. I nicked a couple of frames that Shaun should have won. It's easy when you're making big breaks but you've got to take the close frames as well.

"I'm off to China for the Shanghai Masters tomorrow so it's nice to get a win under my belt and get some more confidence. Hopefully I can keep it going and have a good run."

Murphy made a break of 65 in the first frame of the final but it wasn't enough as Williams won it with a cool 44 clearance. The second saw Murphy build a 51-0 lead and he went on to make it 1-1.

Frame three saw both players pass up chances, Williams eventually seizing the opportunity to clear from last red to pink and go 2-1 ahead. And when Murphy missed a mid-range red early in frame four, Williams stepped up to the plate with an excellent 101 clearance to seal victory.

Earlier, Williams opened with a 3-0 whitewash of crowd favourite White.

Williams flew out of the traps with a break of 105 to win the first frame. Frame two was riddled with errors from both players, but Williams eventually took it by clearing from yellow to pink to lead 2-0.

The two-times World Champion took control of the third frame with a break of 60, and though White battled gamely, a safety error let Williams back into complete the whitewash.

The second semi-final saw Murphy edge a 3-2 win over nine-times Premier League champion O'Sullivan.

A fragmented opening frame saw chances for both players, Murphy eventually passing up a clear opportunity to win it when he missed the penultimate red to a baulk corner, leading 48-31. O'Sullivan cleared the table to snatch a 1-0 lead.

The Rocket led 45-0 in the second but Murphy hit back to win it with runs of 36 and 26. Frame three was another scrappy one and came down to the colours, Murphy missing the green to a corner pocket and O'Sullivan taking advantage for a 2-1 lead.

Back came 2005 World Champion Murphy with a superb 115, the highest break of the night, for 2-2.

The first deciding frame of this year's Premier League was played under the rules of last season's Shoot-Out, with the frame to last a maximum of ten minutes. And O'Sullivan suffered the consequences of one of the different rules, as he fouled the pink when trying to roll up to the pack of reds early in the frame, gifting his opponent ' ball in hand.'

Murphy capitalised with a run of 85, assisted by a fluked black early on, to book his place in the final.

The next event is in Motherwell on September 22, with Murphy taking on Ding Junhui and John Higgins facing Neil Robertson.

RESULTS

Semi-finals:

Mark Williams 3-0 Jimmy White
105-1 (Williams 105), 61-30, 82-5 (Williams 60)

Shaun Murphy 3-2 Ronnie O'Sullivan
48-63; 71-45; 49-68; 115-6 (Murphy 115), 91-0 (Murphy 85)

Final:

Mark Williams 3-1 Shaun Murphy
67-65 (Murphy 65), 14-66, 62-47; 118-6 (Williams 101)