Dramatic Walden comeback stuns Williams to book semi-final place

Ricky Walden produced a dramatic comeback to stun Mark Williams in the quarter-final of the Players Championship.

Walden battled back from 1-4 and 2-5 down to progress to the final four after taking a thilling match in the deciding frame.

Williams was in excellent form in the last match of the day, but Walden showed plenty of flashes of his own talent.

The first frame was a little scrappy as the Welsh former world number one scrapped to a 69-17 win, but he hit a 103 in the next frame to go two up.

Walden hit an impressive 60 on his way to reducing the deficit to a single frame, but back-to-back centuries took Williams to a 4-1 lead.

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Walden though was undimmed by the heavy scoring of his opponent, pulling one back with a break of 123, the highest score of the match-up.

Former world number one Williams, 46, moved a frame from victory when he battled to a 67-42 lead to tee up the win.

The 39-year-old Walden refused to roll over with defeat looming, and instead narrowed Williams’ lead to just one frame with back-to-back half century breaks, before fighting his way through to level at 5-5 and tee up a decisive 11th frame.

The decider produced more drama as Walden looked to pull clear but left the door open for Williams who agonisingly missed a red when could have cleared to win by a single point.

Walden is through to his second successive ranking event semi-final and will play the winner of Yan Bingtao and Barry Hawkins’ match, in the semi-finals on Friday.

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