Xiao Guodong efficiently defended the Wuhan Open after a dramatic 10-9 victory over Gary Wilson in Saturday’s remaining on the Optics Valley Gymnasium.
The Chinese language cueist fought his manner again from 8-6 behind to land the £140,000 prime prize in China for the second season in a row.
Certainly, Xiao turns into solely the fifth participant after Ray Reardon, John Parrott, Mark Allen, and his opponent Wilson to win his first and second profession rating titles on the similar event.
The success continues Xiao’s exceptional rise from journeyman to a longtime member of the elite over the course of the final 12 months or so.
Regardless of each having performed good snooker all through the week to get this far within the event, the opening exchanges to the ultimate proved to be cagey.
There was a plethora of sudden misses through the first few frames with Xiao and Wilson every seeming to battle with the enormity of the event.
Xiao established a 2-0 lead and had alternatives to stamp his authority on the competition, however the 36 year-old allowed Wilson again in to stage on the interval.
The latter, who counted Judd Trump, John Higgins, Shaun Murphy, and Mark Allen among the many gamers he defeated earlier within the occasion, then took the entrance for the primary time with a tidy break of 96.
It appeared as if the Englishman had lastly settled, however additional unhealthy pictures within the sixth body allowed the defending champion in to revive parity once more.
A 62 from Xiao – his solely break above 50 through the afternoon bout of play – ensured that he regained the benefit, and he duly moved 5-3 in entrance to ensure a lead going into the night session.
Wilson, although, made certain that his arrears could be only one by sparking into life to make a well timed contribution of 116.
The usual through the second session was markedly totally different as each contenders considerably upped their stage.
A second ton from Wilson, a three-time winner on the Residence Nations Sequence, within the tenth body introduced the scores again to all-square but once more.
With the shackles lastly launched and extra stream to the sport, the pair traded sizable contributions earlier than a 3rd century break provided Wilson a 7-6 lead on the final mid-session interval.
Xiao had a chance within the 14th body to even it up once more however one other uncharacteristic miss gifted his opponent an opportunity to determine a two-frame cushion for the primary time.
All of the momentum was with a rampant Wilson at this level, however Xiao refused to surrender his title with out a battle and shifted by means of the gears to compile gutsy breaks of 103 and 90, making it 8-8.
Xiao saved the challenger to his throne pointless for the third body on the spin to go 9-8 forward however suffered an unfortunate positional shot within the subsequent as he chased victory.
Wilson responded with a much-needed break of 52 to power a deciding body in a rating occasion remaining for the second successive time this season.
However Xiao, by means of two bites on the cherry, finally managed to recover from the successful line to the delight of his house crowd in Wuhan.
A career-high world rating of quantity eight will observe, a exceptional achievement for a participant who started the week along with his second profession most break.
Xiao opted to skip the profitable Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters in favour of competing on the World Video games, the place he gained a gold medal for his nation.
That call might have backfired, however he has backed himself to carry out at different occasions on the calendar, and there are none he enjoys collaborating in additional than the Wuhan Open.
2025 Wuhan Open draw
Spherical of 16 (bo9)
Xiao Guodong 5-2 Matthew Selt
Barry Hawkins 0-5 Stan Moody
Mark Williams 5-3 Mark Selby
Zhang Anda 5-4 Aaron Hill
Judd Trump 4-5 Gary Wilson
Tom Ford 1-5 John Higgins
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 1-5 Mark Allen
Si Jiahui 5-2 Stephen Maguire
Quarter-Finals (bo9)
Xiao Guodong 5-2 Stan Moody
Mark Williams 5-1 Zhang Anda
Gary Wilson 5-3 John Higgins
Mark Allen 5-3 Si Jiahui
Semi-Finals (bo11)
Xiao Guodong 6-3 Mark Williams
Gary Wilson 6-2 Mark Allen
Remaining (bo19)
Xiao Guodong 10-9 Gary Wilson
Featured photograph credit score: WST
