Neil Robertson emerged victorious in week three of Premier League Snooker after beating Ding Junhui 3-1 in the final in Motherwell.
Australian takes week three Premier League honours in Motherwell
Neil Robertson emerged victorious in week three of Premier League Snooker after beating Ding Junhui 3-1 in the final in Motherwell.
The Australian had earlier thrashed home favourite John Higgins in the semi-finals, while Ding had edged out Shaun Murphy in a final frame shoot-out.
The win puts Robertson level on points with three other players in the 2011 table, although the top two - Matthew Stevens and Mark Williams - have played one tournament less than the former Crucible winner.
"I'm really, really happy with how I played," Robertson told
Sky Sports after the final.
"Ding's obviously a world class player and him and Shaun had a cracking match. I had a lot of work to do from last season.
"Last season, although I won the World Open, wasn't acceptable. It was just a sign that I had to work a lot harder on the practice table and I've been practicing really hard so far this season."
Ding took the first frame of the final after deliberately playing a re-spotted black into the middle pocket off three cushions, but Robertson cancelled that out with a superb break of 140 in the next frame.
Century
A second consecutive century break, this time a 109, then edged Robertson 2-1 ahead and he was soon well set at the table again in the next frame.
He did not manage to complete the victory at a single visit, but eventually cleaned up the colours to round off the win.
Robertson had earlier put a damper on the home crowd's excitement by claiming a thumping 3-0 victory over Higgins in their semi-final.
Robertson comfortably took the first frame by posting breaks of 57 and 69 and then doubled his lead with a run of 87 after coming through an early safety exchange.
A loose safety shot from the world champion then set Robertson up to complete the whitewash in the third frame, with the Australian building a big lead that Higgins could not overturn.
In the other semi-final, a lengthy first frame went the way of Ding after a break of 92 before Murphy hit back to level things up at 1-1 after a run of 98.
Another break of 98 then gave the former world champion a 2-1 lead and the run of high breaks continued as an 87 from Ding took the match into a sudden death shoot-out.
The Chinese player surged into an 80-point lead and Murphy conceded with under three minutes remaining, setting up the final between Ding and Robertson.
