Williams poised to become oldest ranking event winner

Mark Williams leads Shaun Murphy 7-1 in the Xi’an Grand Prix final and is three frames away from becoming the oldest winner of a ranking event.

Aged 50 years and 206 days, Williams could eclipse the record held by fellow Welshman Ray Reardon, who was 50 years and 14 days old when he won the Professional Players Tournament in 1982.

Williams is appearing in his 44th ranking final and a 27th ranking title would put him one behind fifth-placed Steve Davis (28) in the all-time list.

Ronnie O’Sullivan holds the record with 41 ranking event wins.

Should Williams complete victory, he would become the first player to win a tour event in his teens, 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s.

Reigning Masters champion Murphy, 43, is aiming for back-to-back tournament victories after winning last month’s British Open in Cheltenham.

Williams seized control by winning the first four frames without reply and made a superb 127 break in the last frame of the opening session to go with his six earlier half-centuries.

Breaks of 75 and 73 put him 2-0 ahead and he then pinched the next two frames with contributions of 56 and 68 after Murphy had held significant leads in both.

Murphy stopped the rot with a 69 break in the fifth, but Williams – who will move back into the world’s top four if he wins the title – responded with a run of three consecutive frames to close out the session.