Ronnie O’Sullivan and Mark Williams will compete in the 2024 Tour Championship final on Sunday in Manchester.
Two of the all-time greats of the game will do battle again, their latest meeting coming a full 30 years after their first on the main tour as teenagers.
Now approaching their 50s, they are remarkably still fighting it out at the latter stages of tournaments on a regular basis.
O’Sullivan, who overcame Gary Wilson 10-7 in a close semi-final affair on Friday, remains on course to secure a sixth piece of silverware of the season.
The Rocket has already won two rankings tournaments – the UK Championship and the World Grand Prix – to help maintain his status as the sport’s world number one.
Recent success has also come in three lucrative invitational events, with O’Sullivan collecting trophies at the Masters, the Shanghai Masters, and the Riyadh Season World Masters.
Williams, meanwhile, will feature in his third ranking final of the 2023/24 campaign after pumping Mark Allen 10-5 in Saturday’s second semi-final tie.
The British Open champion orchestrated a remarkable 9-0 lead before momentarily letting his opponent back into the contest, but he eventually got over the winning line.
As a brief aside, Allen’s defeat ensures that O’Sullivan and Judd Trump will be the respective second and third seeds in the upcoming World Championship.
That will put this season’s two most in-form competitors on the same side of the draw, an unfortunate scenario for many fans.
But before that, there is the very important business of the Tour Championship final at Manchester Central.
Boasting a far superior head-to-head record, O’Sullivan will obviously enter this encounter as a pretty heavy favourite.
The Englishman leads Williams 34-13 (plus three draws) from their 50 prior matches against one another.
Their last multi-session affair was in this event two years ago when O’Sullivan prevailed from a 10-9 thriller.
Williams, though, got the better of their most recent fixture, another dramatic showdown at last year’s Masters that the Welshman won 6-5.
They have faced each other five times in finals over the years, with O’Sullivan leading that count 4-1.
However, the last time they met in the final of a ranking event was all the way back at the 2000 China Open – O’Sullivan winning on that occasion 9-3.
Plenty of signs point to a victory for the Rocket, but it would be foolish to discount Williams completely – particularly if he scores heavily like he did against Allen.
With £150,000 up for grabs for the champion and a huge crowd expected at what has been a terrific new venue for the tournament, it promises to be a special spectacle.
2024 Tour Championship Draw
Round of 12
Mark Williams (8) 10-9 Tom Ford (9)
Mark Allen (5) 10-7 John Higgins (12)
Gary Wilson (6) 10-8 Mark Selby (11)
Barry Hawkins (7) 8-10 Ali Carter (10)
Quarter-Finals
Judd Trump (1) 4-10 Mark Williams (8)
Ding Junhui (4) 8-10 Mark Allen (5)
Zhang Anda (3) 8-10 Gary Wilson (6)
Ronnie O’Sullivan (2) 10-2 Ali Carter (10)
Semi-Finals
Mark Williams (8) 10-5 Mark Allen (5)
Gary Wilson (6) 7-10 Ronnie O’Sullivan (2)
Final (bo19).
Mark Williams (8) 10-5 Ronnie O’Sullivan (2)
Featured photo credit: WST
I would argue this is the biggest final they’ve contested. Their first since 2005.
Only their fourth match on ITV. O’Sullivan has won two of them.
Their first meeting was September 1993 in a qualifier for the 1994 Welsh Open.
O’Sullivan has won all six of their last 16 contests. He’s 33-9 up using the Hendon method for head-to-head.