Dafabet Players Tour Championship Grand Finals: Victory for Ding Junhui
Ding Junhui edged out Neil Robertson 4-3 in the final of the Dafabet Players Tour Championship Grand Finals in Galway.
Last Updated: 17/03/13 11:48pm
The Chinese ace, who made a maximum 147 in his quarter-final win over Mark Allen, took a final-frame decider to secure the £100,000 first prize.
However, he looked to finish empty-handed as world No 3 Robertson stormed into a three-frame lead at the start of the contest.
The Australian won the first with a break of 88 after Ding had made a decent start, took the second with a break of 58 and then claimed the third with a half-century clearance.
At that point last season's runner-up Robertson looked on course to follow the 4-0 whitewashes secured by Stephen Lee and Shaun Murphy in the previous two finals, but Ding had other ideas.
The 2011 Masters champion showed he was far from beaten with breaks of 52 and 70 in winning the fourth frame, and then a brilliant 130 - his eighth century of the tournament - saw him reduce the deficit to 3-2.
It was all-square soon after and, with the momentum behind him, Ding clinched the title with a break of 98 in the deciding frame.
The victory earned Ding his sixth ranking title of his career and first since winning the Welsh Open over a year ago.