White swamps Walden to clinch maiden snooker ranking title

Highly talented Welshman Michael White capped a splendid run by claiming his maiden ranking title when he blanked World No 8 Ricky Walden 5-0 in a one-sided final of the Indian Open Snooker Championship in Mumbai on Saturday.

The 23-year-old White jumped to a 4-0 lead after firing in breaks of 81 (1st frame), 77 (2nd), 45 and 41 (3rd) and 32 and 58 (4th) even as his opponent looked on glumly before the organisers called for a 25-minute break in the best-of-nine-frame title contest.

Any hopes of the 32-year-old Walden staging a fight-back, as he had done when he clawed his way back from a 0-3 deficit to put it across exciting Thai talent and rank outsider Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in their morning semi-final, were dashed as White took the fifth and title-deciding frame on a canter.

White won the final frame with his highest break of the match, 85, to take home the winner’s purse of pound sterling 50,000 while Walden got half that amount for finishing runner-up in the pound sterling 300,000 world ranking five-day event.

White won the summit contest 81 (81)-0, 77 (77)-20, 86-0, 90 (58)-1, 85 (85)-6.

Results

Semi-finals:

Ricky Walden (Eng) bt Thepchaiya Un-Nooh (Thailand) 4-3: 0-78 (78), 53-68 (62), 0-72 (68), 81 (81)-0, 73-36, 78 (78)-0, 91-47.

Michael White (Wales) bt Mark Williams (Wales) 4-2: 41-65, 126 (126)-7, 66-23, 80-40, 39-68 (55), 109 (87)-4).

Final: White bt Walden 5-0 (won 81 (81)-0, 77 (77)-20, 86-0, 90 (58)-1, 85 (85)-6.

Image: Michael White of Wales in action

Photograph: Matthew Lewis/Getty Images