Mark Williams thrashed Shaun Murphy 10-3 to win the 2025 Xi’an Grand Prix on Monday at the Qujiang Athletic Center.
In doing so, the Welshman becomes the oldest-ever ranking event winner in snooker – aged 50 years and 206 days.
Williams breaks a World Snooker Tour record that stood since 1982 when his countryman Ray Reardon prevailed in that year’s Professional Players Tournament at the age of 50 years and 14 days.
It’s the latest chapter in a remarkable professional career that began all the way back in 1992 when he graduated to the main tour alongside contemporaries Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins.
All three are still competing at the very highest level, winning prestigious titles and continuously adding their names to the history books.
As the eldest of the three, Williams was probably the most likely to eclipse the oldest champion feat set by Reardon.
He already came close to achieving it at the World Championship in May when he reached the final only to be denied a fourth world crown by Zhao Xintong.
Williams then began this season solidly with a string of runs to the quarters and semis of tournaments, and he rejoins the top four in the world rankings list after picking up the ยฃ177,000 top prize here.
Opponent Murphy, chasing back-to-back ranking titles after his triumph at the British Open last month, had actually been the big favourite heading into the Xi’an Grand Prix final.
The Magician was in terrific form all week, particularly in the scoring department where he almost got in on the record-breaking action himself in his 5-0 destruction of reigning champion Kyren Wilson in the last 16.
Murphy compiled ten tons en route to the title-deciding affair and was highly fancied to overcome a player who had rarely produced his best.
Williams, by contrast, had advanced to the final through grit and determination rather than by expressing any degree of his usual form.
But all the great champions over the years have had a tendency to save their best stuff for the very end when it matters the most, and that was certainly the case here.
Williams began the showdown for glory in confident fashion with breaks of 75 and 73 helping him to build an early 2-0 cushion.
Even though it was still early on in a race to ten, the match had seemingly already got away from Murphy when he squandered two golden opportunities in the third and fourth frames to get on the scoreboard, instead drifting 4-0 down.
The 43 year-old eventually managed to get off the mark in the fifth, but Williams reeled off the following three, including with a break of 127, to end the first session 7-1 in front.
An excellent 122 contribution to open the evening’s bout of play subsequently extended his lead to seven frames.
Murphy put some respectability to the scoreline by taking the ensuing two frames, but when Williams took the last frame before the mid-session interval, the game was all but up.
The three-time world champion needed a couple of bites of the cherry in the 13th frame but duly wrapped up the one-sided success to acclaim from the crowd.
Defeat for Murphy will undoubtedly bring disappointment, but his recent performances have seen him rejoin the top 10 of the world rankings in ninth place.
That, in fact, is important as it has sealed his invitation to November’s Riyadh Season Snooker Championship in Saudi Arabia.
The man of the moment, though, is Williams who despite his constant quips of self-deprecation remains one of the sport’s elite competitors into his fifties.
His record-breaking victory also represents his 27th in a ranking event, taking him into sixth on his own on the all-time list ahead of Neil Robertson.
2025 Xi’an Grand Prix
Round of 32 (bo9)
Kyren Wilson 5-2 Yuan Sijun
Shaun Murphy 5-4 Wu Yize
Elliot Slessor 4-5 Oliver Lines
Louis Heathcote 3-5 Ding Junhui
Ronnie O’Sullivan 5-0 Stephen Maguire
David Lilley 3-5 Jak Jones
Gary Wilson 5-4 Mateusz Baranowski
He Guoqiang 5-4 Neil Robertson
Matthew Stevens 4-5 Lyu Haotian
Stan Moody 0-5 Stuart Bingham
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 2-5 Barry Hawkins
Zhou Yuelong 2-5 Mark Williams
Liam Pullen 5-0 Noppon Saengkham
Mark Davis 1-5 Aaron Hill
Daniel Wells 5-3 Si Jiahui
Jimmy Robertson 4-5 Robert Milkins
Round of 16 (bo9)
Kyren Wilson 0-5 Shaun Murphy
Oliver Lines 1-5 Ding Junhui
Ronnie O’Sullivan 5-2 Jak Jones
Gary Wilson 5-0 He Guoqiang
Lyu Haotian 5-3 Stuart Bingham
Barry Hawkins 4-5 Mark Williams
Liam Pullen 5-1 Aaron Hill
Daniel Wells 5-2 Robert Milkins
Quarter-Finals (bo9)
Shaun Murphy 5-3 Ding Junhui
Ronnie O’Sullivan 2-5 Gary Wilson
Lyu Haotian 4-5 Mark Williams
Liam Pullen 2-5 Daniel Wells
Semi-Final (bo11)
Shaun Murphy 6-4 Gary Wilson
Mark Williams 6-3 Daniel Wells
Final (bo19)
Shaun Murphy 3-10 Mark Williams
Click here for the updated draw and results (snooker.org)
Featured photo credit: WST
Remarkable win for a remarkable winner. This win went against the form book for the week, but that’s what happens sometimes in the special circumstances of a final. It has to be said that Williams doesn’t seem very interested in his newest record and for once I think many people would understand!
I make it a 36th career title for Williams. It’s his fourth ranking title in China, but a first there since the 2010 China Open.
First player to win a pro title in his teens, 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s as well.