Ebdon wins absorbing final – Pro Snooker Blog (original) (raw)

A visibly delighted Peter Ebdon has won his eighth ranking event title with a hard fought 10-8 victory over old rival John Higgins. Click below to read how he did it…

Match Result

John Higgins 8-10 Peter Ebdon

87(60)-4, 1-84(84), 15-109(108), 78-15, 5-65, 57-68, 64-10, 56(56)-72(54), 140(140)-0
16-114(52,57), 105(62)-13, 68(43)-46, 25-55, 75(51)-32(32), 43-67(40), 63-53(52), 3-64, 8-86(71)

Congratulations to Peter Ebdon who has won his eighth ranking event title with a 10-8 victory over Scotland’s John Higgins.

Coming into the session with a slender 5-4 lead, Peter got off to a terrific start with breaks of 52 and 57 to lead 6-4. For a moment it looked as though he might make it 7-4 but John hung in there and with breaks of 62 and 43 was level at 6-6. Peter then went ahead again before in frame 12, John looked to be making it 7-7 in one visit only to miss a straightforward pink into the left-centre on 51. Peter had a great opportunity to capitalise and move two ahead again at 8-6, but could not take it and a relieved Higgins made it 7-7.

As the topsy turvy nature of the final dictated, Peter then went back in front at 8-7 before what turned out to be an epic frame/ Peter made the early running with a break of 52 but having looked good to take it, Higgins fought back to just three points behind with only pink and black on the table. Both were very edgy at this point, Ebdon missing a couple of wild attempts into the green pocket before Higgins missed with the rest into the yellow pocket. The decisive moment came however when Ebdon attempted to double the pink the full length of the table into the green pocket, missing and leaving it over the right-centre. John duly knocked it in followed by the black and they were level again at 8-8.

Could this be a turning point and allow John to get some momentum? No as it turned out as in the last two frames he scored just 11 points. Frame 17 was all but decided when Peter put John in a horrible snooker behind the brown, while a 71 in frame 18 all but secured the trophy. John carried on for a short while needing three snookers to tie, but it was not to be and Peter managed to get over the line.

Really well done to Peter because coming into the event having won just two matches all season, looking like dropping out of the top 16 and having been written off by many, this is a real achievement for him. I did not see his earlier matches this week but I was impressed with how strong he looked against Stephen Hendry in the quarter-finals and he has managed to keep up this form for the rest of the week. As I say, this is his eighth ranking event title now, his first since the 2006 UK Championship (when he also defeated both Hendry and Higgins along the way), and his first overseas since the 1997 Thailand Open. It will now be very interesting to see how he gets on at the World Championship in a couple of months with the pressure right off having secured his top 16 place for another year.

For John he will be gutted to lose, but while he has had a great run this week, he has not quite been able to produce his best snooker on a consistent basis. Also having fallen 4-0 behind against Anthony Hamilton earlier on in the week I suspect that he would have taken the runner-up spot right then! Another consolation is that he is up to top spot in the one-year rankings, as well as back up to fifth in the provisional rankings so should go into the World Championship in good spirits.

Overall it was a very enjoyable final and indeed an interesting tournament as a whole as those players who really needed a strong performance this week such as Ebdon, Hendry and Graeme Dott duly delivered it. All in all now it makes things very interesting going into the big one later this month…