Gary Wilson is the 2024 BetVictor Welsh Open champion after completing a 9-4 victory over Martin O’Donnell on Sunday in Llandudno.
The 38 year-old prevailed from a contest that was, at times, low in quality – lifting the Ray Reardon Trophy and pocketing the ยฃ80,000 champion’s cheque.
It’s the second Home Nations series tournament in a row that Wilson has won following his successful defence of the Scottish Open in December.
The triumph takes his overall career tally of ranking titles to three, a remarkable stat considering he was still chasing his maiden glory 14 months ago.
Wilson will rise to a career-high ranking of number 12 in the world and he is into the top ten on the provisional end-of-season standings.
Few predicted a final between the pair of Englishmen, with O’Donnell’s appearance particularly surprising as the world number 76.
Making his debut at this stage of a professional tournament, the 37 year-old initially struggled badly with the occasion.
Wilson took advantage with breaks of 98, 52, and 55 to lead 4-0 at the mid-session interval and then extended his cushion to 6-1.
A tidy contribution of 92 from O’Donnell to conclude the afternoon session offered some hope of a reprieve.
He won two out of the next three frames as well upon the resumption, countering Wilson’s break of 100 with an 85 run of his own to get back to 4-7 behind.
A crucial 12th frame subsequently saw chances missed on both sides, with Wilson finally taking one of his to reestablish a four-frame advantage at the last mini interval.
The Tyneside Terror needed several opportunities again in the next frame but eventually got over the winning line.
Much like the entire affair, O’Donnell didn’t provide sufficient enough resistance and gifted his higher-ranked opponent too many openings.
Wilson may not have reached the highs of his 147 break against John Higgins in the last four, but that won’t matter much.
He has become only the fourth player this season to win multiple events on the calendar after Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump, and Mark Allen.
Wilson will also head to the lucrative Players Championship next week full of confidence as he bids to continue his recent run of form.
2024 Welsh Open draw
Round of 128 (bo7)
Robert Milkins 4-3 Jamie Jones
Allan Taylor 4-2 Haydon Pinhey
David Gilbert 4-0 Ken Doherty
Oliver Lines 4-3 Michael White
Jack Lisowski 4-2 Oliver Brown
Liam Pullen 4-0 Rebecca Kenna
Gary Wilson 4-1 Mark Davis
Iulian Boiko 4-0 Ishpreet Singh Chadha
Long Zehuang 4-1 Andy Lee
Anthony McGill 4-1 Manasawin Phetmalaikul
Sanderson Lam 4-0 Baipat Siripaporn
Mark Williams 4-2 John Astley
Matthew Stevens 4-3 Louis Heathcote
Ricky Walden 4-2 Andy Hicks
Stuart Carrington 4-2 Reanne Evans
Neil Robertson 4-1 Jackson Page
Mark Allen 4-3 Cao Yupeng
Ma Hailong 4-2 Rory Thor
Si Jiahui 4-2 Stephen Maguire
Andrew Pagett 4-2 Mink Nutcharut
Ding Junhui 4-2 Jenson Kendrick
Robbie Williams 4-0 Peng Yisong
Adam Duffy 4-0 Zhou Yuelong
Jamie Clarke 4-3 James Cahill
David Lilley 4-0 Victor Sarkis
Ryan Day 4-3 Mostafa Dorgham
Tian Pengfei 4-0 Rod Lawler
John Higgins 4-0 Mohamed Ibrahim
Ross Muir 4-2 Stephen Hendry
Matthew Selt 4-3 Sam Craigie
Alexander Ursenbacher 0-4 Liam Davies
Duane Jones 4-2 Liam Highfield
Alfie Davies 4-1 Liam Graham
Dominic Dale 4-1 Jimmy White
Jordan Brown 4-3 Lyu Haotian
Stan Moody 4-2 Sean O’Sullivan
Zhang Anda 4-1 Ahmed Aly Elsayed
Jak Jones 4-3 Liu Hongyu
Hossein Vafaei 4-1 Scott Donaldson
Julien Leclercq 4-3 Alfie Burden
Dylan Emery 4-1 Fergal O’Brien
Noppon Saengkham 4-1 Himanshu Jain
Andrew Higginson 4-2 Xing Zihao
Ali Carter 1-4 Elliot Slessor
Ben Mertens 4-0 Hammad Miah
Fan Zhengyi 4-2 Joe Perry
Aaron Hill 4-0 Anton Kazakov
Mark Selby 4-2 Yuan Sijun
Shaun Murphy 3-4 Barry Pinches
Daniel Wells 4-2 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
Marco Fu 4-1 Stuart Bingham
Zak Surety 4-2 Mark Joyce
Kyren Wilson 4-3 Ashley Carty
Anthony Hamilton 4-0 Andres Petrov
Chris Wakelin 4-0 Jimmy Robertson
Martin O’Donnell 4-3 Ryan Thomerson
Ian Burns 4-2 Lukas Kleckers
Tom Ford 4-3 Ben Woollaston
Xiao Guodong 4-3 Ashley Hugill
Barry Hawkins 4-0 He Guoqiang
Wu Yize 4-1 Sydney Wilson
Graeme Dott 4-3 Pang Junxu
Joe O’Connor 4-3 Xu Si
Luca Brecel 4-3 Jiang Jun
Round of 64 (bo7)
Robert Milkins 4-1 Allan Taylor
David Gilbert 4-2 Oliver Lines
Jack Lisowski 4-2 Liam Pullen
Gary Wilson 4-2 Iulian Boiko
Long Zehuang 1-4 Anthony McGill
Sanderson Lam 3-4 Mark Williams
Matthew Stevens 3-4 Ricky Walden
Stuart Carrington 3-4 Neil Robertson
Mark Allen 4-0 Ma Hailong
Si Jiahui 4-2 Andrew Pagett
Ding Junhui 2-4 Robbie Williams
Adam Duffy 4-0 Jamie Clarke
David Lilley 2-4 Ryan Day
Tian Pengfei 1-4 John Higgins
Ross Muir 1-4 Matthew Selt
Liam Davies 1-4 Duane Jones
Alfie Davies 3-4 Dominic Dale
Jordan Brown 3-4 Stan Moody
Zhang Anda 1-4 Jak Jones
Hossein Vafaei 4-1 Julien Leclercq
Dylan Emery 4-2 Noppon Saengkham
Elliot Slessor w/o Andrew Higginson
Ben Mertens 2-4 Fan Zhengyi
Aaron Hill 4-2 Mark Selby
Barry Pinches 1-4 Daniel Wells
Marco Fu 4-3 Zak Surety
Kyren Wilson 1-4 Anthony Hamilton
Chris Wakelin 1-4 Martin O’Donnell
Ian Burns 2-4 Tom Ford
Xiao Guodong 3-4 Barry Hawkins
Wu Yize 2-4 Graeme Dott
Joe O’Connor 0-4 Luca Brecel
Round of 32 (bo7)
Robert Milkins 4-0 David Gilbert
Jack Lisowski 3-4 Gary Wilson
Anthony McGill 4-1 Mark Williams
Ricky Walden 4-2 Neil Robertson
Mark Allen 4-1 Si Jiahui
Robbie Williams 4-2 Adam Duffy
Ryan Day 1-4 John Higgins
Matthew Selt 4-1 Duane Jones
Dominic Dale 4-1 Stan Moody
Jak Jones 4-2 Hossein Vafaei
Dylan Emery 1-4 Elliot Slessor
Fan Zhengyi 4-1 Aaron Hill
Daniel Wells 2-4 Marco Fu
Anthony Hamilton 2-4 Martin O’Donnell
Tom Ford 4-1 Barry Hawkins
Graeme Dott 1-4 Luca Brecel
Round of 16 (bo7)
Robert Milkins 0-4 Gary Wilson
Anthony McGill 4-3 Ricky Walden
Mark Allen 4-0 Robbie Williams
John Higgins 4-3 Matthew Selt
Dominic Dale 4-0 Jak Jones
Elliot Slessor 4-3 Fan Zhengyi
Marco Fu 2-4 Martin O’Donnell
Tom Ford 1-4 Luca Brecel
Quarter-Final (bo9)
Gary Wilson 5-0 Anthony McGill
Mark Allen 2-5 John Higgins
Dominic Dale 3-5 Elliot Slessor
Martin O’Donnell 5-3 Luca Brecel
Semi-Final (bo11)
Gary Wilson 6-4 John Higgins
Elliot Slessor 5-6 Martin O’Donnell
Final (bo17)
Gary Wilson 9-4 Martin O’Donnell
Featured photo credit: WST
One for the purists as the saying goes, and a sadly predictable match as it panned out. Well done to Wilson on becoming a multiple title winner this season, and there were flashes of good snooker mixed into an underwhelming match.
Worst final of the season. The pace of play was too slow and neither man broke 90 per cent for pot success.
I haven’t checked but from memory I think Wilson is the third player after Selby and Trump to win consecutive events in the Home Nations Series.