Mark Williams beats Judd Trump to become oldest ever Crucible finalist

Mark Williams produced a brilliant come-from-behind performance to beat Judd Trump 17-14 and become the oldest ever World Snooker Championship finalist.

At 50 years old, the Welsh Potting Machine is into a fifth Crucible final, having won three of his previous visits to the sport’s showpiece contest.

There he will take on a man 22 years his junior in China’s Zhao Xintong, who will be stepping into a World Championship final for the first time.

Williams was second favourite against the world number one in the semi-final, but battled back from a sticky situation early on and was the better player over Saturday’s third and fourth sessions.

Stephen Hendry said on the BBC: ‘Today he’s basically dominated the best player in the world. The Crucible brings out the best in Mark Williams.’

Trump looked in a strong position early in the match, taking a 7-3 lead and looking impressive in doing so.

The Welshman is extremely tough to shake off and impossible to rattle, though, and he fired back into contention, winning five of the next six frames and end the second session level at 8-8.

The first four frames of Saturday morning were shared, but that is when Williams started powering ahead for the first time in the match.

From the 21st frame the three-time world champion won five of the next six, with breaks of 73, 84, 62, 67 and 65. Trump was still showing his immense talent, knocking in a 64 in his only frame on that run and then a 104 in the 27th.

Williams made his second century of the match in the next, though, to go one from victory at 16-12 as they went in for the mid-session interval.

The Englishman kept his hopes alive by taking the 29th and looked to finding some rhythm again by knocking in a century – his 107th of the season – in the next.

Trump threatened again in the next with a brilliant opening red, but that’s where the break ended as he missed a tricky black, with Williams stepping in to make a seemingly nerveless century, winning frame and match in the process.

Waiting for Williams in the showpiece is Zhao after his brilliant 17-7 win over Ronnie O’Sullivan in the semi-finals.

The 28-year-old won four qualifying games just to reach the Crucible, after returning from a 20-month ban from the sport in September.

Having only won one game at the Crucible before this year, he has downed Jak Jones, Lei Peifan, Chris Wakelin and O’Sullivan to book his spot in the final.

Williams has been brilliant over his campaign so far, especially as he was open about problems with his vision coming into the event.

The veteran, who turned 50 in March, downed Wu Yize in his opener, before beating Hossein Vafaei and then John Higgins in a classic quarter-final.

He has been remarkably consistent throughout the event so far and kept up that form in a superb win over the world number one in the last four.

The best-of-35 final is played over four sessions at 1pm and 7pm on Sunday and Monday.