Neil Robertson is a rating occasion champion as soon as once more after edging Wu Yize 9-7 in an entertaining English Open remaining on Sunday.
The Australian withstood a gutsy combat again from his younger opponent to etch his identify onto the Steve Davis Trophy for the second time.
Success for Robertson brings his profession tally of rating titles to 24, whereas the £100,000 champion’s cheque ensures his return to the highest 16 of the world rankings.
That, by the way, means John Higgins’ nearly three-decade unbroken tenure within the elite bracket of the rankings has come to an finish, with the Scot pushed right down to quantity 17 on the official two-year listing.
The second, nonetheless, belongs to Robertson who accomplished his turnaround in fortunes after a dismal couple of years on the primary tour.
Having been one of the prolific winners for 15 years on the skilled circuit, Robertson’s kind nosedived firstly of the 2022/23 marketing campaign.
The 42 year-old continued to wrestle for outcomes into final season, the place he managed just one semi-final look in a rating occasion.
It was all the time going to be unlikely {that a} participant of such class and calibre would undergo within the doldrums on a everlasting foundation, although.
There have been indicators of a return to kind this 12 months, together with a run to the quarter-finals of the current Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters.
In Brentwood for the 2024 English Open, Robertson gained additional boosts in confidence with standout victories over the likes of Shaun Murphy and Barry Hawkins.
A dominant 6-1 semi-final defeat of Chris Wakelin took him into his first remaining in additional than two years, and initially it appeared as if he was going to romp to a straightforward glory.
Residing as much as his tag because the favorite, Robertson compiled a brace of century breaks and made 4 extra sizable contributions as he established a complete 7-1 lead on the finish of the primary session.
Wu, that includes in a maiden rating occasion remaining on the age of 20, signalled his intent to go all-out assault within the second session when he started it with an excellent 127.
However when Robertson subsequently made it 8-2 to go to inside a body of the title, the writing seemed to be on the wall.
Wu, to his credit score, was to not be deterred and reeled off 5 frames on the spin with relentless breaks of 100, 82, 73, 95, and 50.
Robertson scored simply 34 factors throughout that sequence of play and was feeling the stress, however an outrageous fluke within the sixteenth body swung the match again in his favour.
The Melbourne synthetic a well timed 55 contribution that helped see him lastly cross the successful line and add to his earlier English Open victory from 2021.
Featured picture credit score: WST
