The Welshman, though, valiantly battled back from 5-3 down to beat Ding 10-6 to secure his first title for four years.

The 35-year-old former world champion had been stuck in a rut during those four long years, struggling to make his presence felt on the snooker circuit.

However, this long-overdue win netted the “over the moon” Williams a winners’ cheque for £55,000 and provided the Welshman with a clear indicator that his snooker career is not over just yet.

The Nugget is now playing professional snooker for the fifth consecutive decade, but last won this tournament back in 1989. It’s also 25 years since that epic final involving Dennis Taylor.

How Davis would love to make amends with one last swansong in 2010.

It’s a credit to Davis’ professionalism that he’s lasted so long in the game.

His opponent, King, will have full respect for the Ginger Magician in Sheffield; but could well put a stop to Davis’ World Championship career with a win in the opening round.

In fact, it’s probably about 10 years too late. Parrott has not won a rankings event the 1996 European Open, or an event in general since the German Masters in 1998.

At the ripe old age of 45, the Liverpudlian has conceded that he doesn’t enjoy practicing anymore – a clear sign that he must get out of the sport before he loses his love for the game altogether.

Expect to see him popping up on the BBC even more regularly in recent months.

The Scot’s convincing 5-2 win against Mark Selby should have been a clear indicator that Higgins meant business in this year’s tournament at the Newport Centre, though; and he duly sprang a surprise by beating the in-form O’Sullivan for a place in the final.

Although this was easily Higgins’ toughest test in the competition, he still needed to overcome the challenge of the 2009 Welsh Open champion, Ali Carter, to land his hands on the rankings event trophy for a second time.

Regardless of his form coming into the tournament’s final, few could have imagined the one-sided nature of the opening session. The reigning world champion stormed to a 5-0 lead – hitting several 80+ breaks in the process – leaving his opponent wondering how to force his way into the match against a man relentless on his pursuit for glory.

Earlier in the day, sport’s focus had been firmly fixed on Britain’s Andy Murray, who despite his best efforts, was comprehensively beaten in the Australian Open final by the great Roger Federer.

It was a similar story in south-east Wales yesterday evening. Carter, assuming the role of Murray, was simply outclassed by Higgins. And when he produces that level of snooker it’s almost impossible to stop the man nicknamed the Wizard of Wishaw.

Higgins took a 6-2 lead going into the evening session; and during the interval the engravers must have been busy carving his name into the trophy because the Scot’s pending victory seemed inevitable.

It proved exactly that. The 35-year-old won the final two frames of the final session to record an emphatic 9-4 victory against Carter and seal the Welsh Open title for the first time in a decade.

This latest win took the 2009 Player of the Year’s ranking event tally to 21 – just one behind O’Sullivan – and he was delighted to win the Newport tournament for a second time.

Higgins said: “I was delighted with the way I played for the first five frames. That was the best I’d ever felt really. I was just properly zoned in.

“It’s hard to win any tournament these days with the quality of players around but I’m over the moon about winning the Welsh Open for a second time.

“The crowd here are one of the best. The Newport Centre is a great arena to play in.”

The three-time World Champion is now expected to overtake the Rocket at the top of the world rankings – if he matches his display at next month’s China Open then he will guarantee his place at the top of the rankings for the start of the 2010/11 season.

Meanwhile, Carter was slightly despondent that he had failed to retain his Welsh Open title, but conceded he had been beaten fairly by the better player on the night.

“I was under all sorts of pressure and I was just glad to make a game of it. I would have been glad to get back to 7-5, but he’s done me 9-4 in the end,” the 30-year-old added.

“The crowd have been great this week and I am disappointed I couldn’t keep my title, but I had a good go.”

The China Open, hosted at the Beijing University Students Gymnasium in the country’s capital, will begin on March 29^th and conclude on April 4^th; and Higgins will be looking to round off a spectacular season with a victory in the far-east, before another World Snooker Championship at the Crucible in May.

Rob Swan.

A comfortable 5-2 victory against the Australian was a clear indicator that Carter is on course to reach the tournament’s latter stages. However, he will now play another of the sport’s in-form players in the quarter-finals – the conqueror of Stephen Hendry – Ryan Day.

Carter’s match against Robertson was far from the classic many had anticipated before the first shot of the evening session, but the 30-year-old displayed the type of ruthlessness which champions are renowned for producing when it matters most.

A superb break of 115 at a pivotal time in the match put the 2009 Welsh Open winner firmly on course for a place in the last eight; and when Robertson missed a green in the seventh frame with the score at 46-35, Carter duly obliged in putting an end to the game by potting a final black.

Robertson, who won this rankings event in 2007, had been outclassed by a man on a mission to become the first player to win consecutive Welsh Open titles since Ronnie O’Sullivan in 2004 and ’05.

Meanwhile, the unfancied Day triumphed against Hendry in the last 16 to seal a quarter-final berth. Competing in his homeland, Day was largely written off because of his poor record against the Scottish legend – four defeats in as many matches for the Welshman – however, he sealed a brilliant 5-3 victory to send home a delighted crowd away from the Newport Centre.

The last of the first-round matches were also decided last night, with the second round set to be concluded by this evening.

Ding Junhui became yet another big-name Chinese casualty in the opening rounds of this competition – meaning that not one player from the country will feature in the tournament’s second round. The world No. 13 was beaten 5-3 by Jamie Cope despite some impressive breaks of his own – including a 127.

Cope will no doubt be buoyed by yesterday’s victory, but he will need to see off the challenge of the world’s best player this afternoon if he’s to reach the last eight. Not an easy task by any stretch of the imagination and one which is extremely difficult to envisage him passing.

There were also first round wins for Welshman Mark Williams and 32-year-old Scot Graeme Dott, who has set up an intriguing last 16 match against his compatriot John Higgins.

The reigning champion of the Championship League, Judd Trump, couldn’t quite put enough pressure on the winner of this month’s prestigious Masters tournament, Mark Selby. Trump, who advanced to the winner’s group of this year’s Championship League just last week, lost 5-2 to the Jester from Leicester. Perhaps this tournament came slightly too earlier for the 20-year-old but there’s no doubt he will be a major threat in this rankings event and others like it in the forthcoming years.

The remaining six matches of the quarter-finals will be contested today over two separate sessions. The first one will begin at 1pm and will feature a wealth of snooker talent including Stephen Maguire, Matthew Stephens and the Rocket himself.

Into the evening session, and Andrew Higginson and Mark Williams will go head-to-head, as will Mark Selby and Mark King before the much-anticipated battle of the Scots – Dott v Higgins.

So, the rankings event is hotting up nicely with four days left to play. Is anyone capable of stopping Carter in his tracks in this competition?

Rob Swan

It was an ominous start from the 30-year-old, who hit a 120 break in his first frame to put Davis firmly on the back foot.

Carter’s opponent did equaliser in the second frame, but this would be as good as it got for the 37-year-old, as the champion broke into his stride and began to exert his dominance.

And although Carter never truly hit top gear during the remainder of the match, it was still a reasonably impressive performance from the man nicknamed “The Captain”, as he sealed further breaks of 57 and 64.

Whether or not he will be able to replicate the form of 2009 during this week remains to be seen, but he now faces a major test in the form of Australian Neil Robertson in the second round of the competition.

World No. 9, Robertson, sealed a 5-2 win against China’s Liu Song. Although it might look like a routine victory on paper for the Australian, Song managed to hold the 27-year-old to two frames a piece before the interval.

Song admitted he was nervous at first, but soon settled into the match. However, Robertson proved too strong for the 26-year-old, who will now concentrate on qualifying for the China Open next month.

Meanwhile, there was a shock result involving Peter Ebdon, as he was hammered by Barry Hawkings. The 2002 world champion, Ebdon, was whitewashed by the world number 17 in a result which no-one in their right mind would have predicted before the tournament started.

There’s now a strong possibility that Ebdon will lose his place in snooker’s top 16 after this defeat – if he does, it will be the first time in 16 years that he has slipped out of the elite bracket.

And finally, the third Englishman to advance to the second round was Andrew Higginson, after he beat Marco Fu by five frames to two.

The result leaves Ding Junhui as the sole Chinese competitor left in the competition; while Higginson will now face either Mark Williams or Fergal O’Brien in the last 16.

The first round action will resume this afternoon, with the likes of Ronnie O’Sullivan, Shaun Murphy and Stephen Hendry all vying for a place in the next round of the Welsh Open.

Rob Swan

Robertson had been tipped by many as a potential winner in this year’s Championship League, but the Australian was comprehensively beaten by an in-form Fu at Crandon Park last night.

The 32-year-old Hong Kong player stormed to a 1-0 lead in the final with breaks of 59 and 67; and then made it 2-0 with another impressive break of 70. By this point, there only ever looked like being one winner, and Fu made sure of his place in March’s winners’ group by not conceding a single point in the third and final frame.

It was a deserved victory for Fu, who had been in blistering form over the two days. A remarkable total of six centuries – including a 144 against Ali Carter in the round-robin, before a break of 110 in his tense semi-final against Mark Williams yesterday evening – made him the clear outstanding performer in Group Four.

Fu now joins Stephen Maguire, John Higgins and 2009’s Championship League winner, Judd Trump, in the winners’ group. If he can reproduce his group form in March, Fu will have to be considered as one the favourites to win the event.

However, the Hong Kong star has an unfortunate tendency of falling at the final hurdle in tournaments. Whether this is down to nerves or other factors, the general consensus is that Fu should have more trophies to his name by this stage of his career – he’s undoubtedly capable.

And it’s been a mixed start to 2010 for Fu after his exit in the first round of the Masters to Peter Ebdon; but this Championship League win should boost his confidence.

Meanwhile, Robertson will have another chance to qualify for the winners’ group after finishing second to Fu in the play-off final. He will compete in Group Five of the Championship League and will be expected to at least reach the final again.

Williams and Ebdon will also be in Group Five, though, along with Mark Allen, who won half of his round-robin matches in Group Four.

Rob Swan

Hosted in Newport, south-east Wales, the 2010 Welsh Open gets underway on Monday and will finish the following Sunday. The winner of the rankings tournament will receive a cheque for £35,000 – still a decent sum of money, but well behind the £250,000 given to the winner of the World Championships.

Before 1992, the event was a prestigious amateur one and designed for Welsh players only; but its popularity ensured interest from the rankings circuit in the early 1990s, and since then the tournament has flourished into one of the most exciting of the season.

The event’s home is the Newport Centre; however, it has been played away from the 2,000 capacity venue in the past. The Welsh Open was known as the Regal Welsh Open until 2003 but then lost its main sponsor. Between 1999 and 2003, the event was played at the Cardiff International Arena, before a year at the Welsh Institute of Sport in Cardiff in 2004.

But the Welsh Open was brought back to its spiritual home in 2005, where it has remained ever since.

Ali Carter is the reigning champion after beating Joe Swail 9-5 at the Newport Centre last February. It was the 30-year-old’s first rankings title and he secured it in thrilling fashion after coming back from 5-2 down to win 9-5. And 12 months earlier, the current Masters champion, Selby, recorded his first world-ranking title with a brilliant comeback against the Rocket in the tournament’s final – now, where have we heard that one before?

Meanwhile, Stephen Hendry is the only player to have three Welsh Open titles to his name. The Scot sealed his third title in 2003, having won the inaugural event eleven years earlier and his second in 1997.

The likes of Ronnie O’Sullivan, Steve Davis, Mark Williams and the late Paul Hunter trail just behind on two titles – a clear indicator of how highly the top players regard the rankings event.

Unlike the Masters, the Welsh Open starts with 32 competitors in the first round – all of whom have qualified for the tournament via the Welsh Open qualifiers, which have been played all this week, apart from the reigning champion Carter, who qualified by default.

Most of the sport’s big guns have now qualified and are poised to find out who they’ll be facing in the last 32. Hendry, O’Sullivan, Selby, Higgins etc are all present and correct and will be among the favourites to seal the first rankings title of the decade.

But as seen in previous years, this event does have a tendency of producing one or two surprises.

Back in 2007, unranked Andrew Higginson made it all the way to the final of the tournament, scoring a quite brilliant maximum break along the way, and only just lost out to Neil Robertson in the final by a single frame.

“The week has been beyond my wildest dreams,” Higginson said after his 9-8 defeat.

Just two years later it would be Swail’s turn to revel in the limelight cast upon him by the Newport rankings tournament. Aged 39 at the time and without a rankings win to his name, he was presented with his best opportunity at last year’s Welsh Open, but eventually allowed Carter back into the match and was punished for it.

Despite the final results, these two examples offer hope to the lower-ranked players qualifying for this year’s Welsh Open that they can reach the latter stages of the event.

So soon after the high-quality Masters it’s hard to look past the top-ranked players. O’Sullivan will be out to avenge his defeat in Sunday’s final, Selby will be looking to continue his impressive recent form, while Carter will be desperate to retain his title; but there’s something special about the Newport Centre and snooker which allows those less-fancied to shine.

Once again, the action starts next Monday, and will certainly be one not to miss.

Rob Swan

The 20-year-old sealed his place in the winners’ group after defeating Mark Allen, 3-2, in the Group Three play-off final; and also overcame the challenges of Neil Robertson, Marco Fu, Ali Carter and Joe Perry earlier in the session.

Trump had previously failed to qualify from Group One and Two, but he made sure of his place in the winners’ group after beating Carter 3-0 in the play-off semi-final, before a narrow 3-2 win against Allen.

The left-handed player had enjoyed a tremendous start on day one of Group Three, winning all four of his first four matches, and only slipped up against Stephen Hendry on day two of the group.

“I’ve played decently in spells but I probably played better in the first two groups as I’m still missing a few easy balls,” Trump said.

“I enjoy this event, I don’t know what it is about it but I just relax and play well. It’s a good tournament and I like the atmosphere.

“It’s just more quick-fire compared to other competitions and the best-of-five format suits me.”

He now joins Stephen Maguire and John Higgins in the Championship League winners’ group, which is scheduled to take place in the last week of March. The winner of that will be guaranteed a place in the Premier League Snooker competition, and Trump will be keen to get there again after reaching the semi-finals of last year’s tournament.

An exciting and talented youngster, Trump caught the attention of the snooker world in 2004 by hitting a competitive maximum break of 147 aged just 14 years and 208 days. It was a remarkable achievement made all the more exciting by the fact he had broken Ronnie O’Sullivan’s record set in 1991.

Since then, the Bristolian – nicknamed Haircut 100 because of his boyband hairstyle – has continued to progress at a fast pace, and is expected to be a major challenger for the big prizes in the sport before too long.

Rob Swan

The 61-year-old, who also chairs the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), has now revealed that his next big plan is to introduce a rankings event to Berlin by February 2011 – moving a step closer to cracking the European market.

Although German promoters Dragonstars have insisted that suggestions a deal has been signed are premature, they have confirmed that negotiations have begun.

Before any deal is signed, though, there are rumours that the venue could even be changed to Munich. The popularity of the sport in Germany is the key factor why Hearn is determined to introduce a ranking event to the country, and the snooker chief is keen to select the most appropriate destination.

Currently there are no German players on the pro tour, but the non-ranking Paul Hunter Classic held in Furth, is always a big hit with the Germans, attracting large crowds as well as the sport’s top players.

“The basis of the game is good,” Hearn told the BBC after Sunday’s Masters final.

“It just needs a few simple things to freshen it up. Europe is right up there at the forefront of my plans.”

This year’s Masters has captured the imagination of the public – both those inside Wembley Arena and those watching on television. And although a few snooker purists may have been sceptical of Hearn’s initial impact with regards to the entrance music, it’s hard to deny that it didn’t raise a lot more smiles, while letting the players’ personalities shine through a little more in the process.

The surge in popularity with the darts over recent years is largely down to Hearn’s influence, and the likes of world No. 1 Ronnie O’Sullivan are now expecting snooker to follow suit and to subsequently flourish under his management.

Hearn only became chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association last month, but has already lightened up the sport during his first major tournament in charge. And the Masters final between O’Sullivan and Selby was evidence that the added entrance music takes nothing away from the quality of the matches.

While a deal is struck out to introduce a rankings event to Germany, another more unconventional plan for an intriguing single-frame tournament has also been drawn-up.

The idea is that the sport’s top 64 players will all compete in a one-frame shoot-out, and the winner will receive a cheque for £32,000. With 12 minutes per frame and a 20-second shot clock, it’s an entirely different premise to every other snooker tournament around at the moment, although snooker fans will remember the hugely popular Pot Black which ran throughout the 1970s and 80s.

The equivalent of a penalty shoot-out in football, there would be no margin for error and a true test of a players resolve in unfamiliar circumstances.

Despite concerns of the sport gradually moving away from its traditional roots, the sport needs to evolve to ensure it doesn’t die – and this is why Hearn has been appointed. In less than two months, the snooker chief has revitalised elements of the game, and in general the supporters have responded very positively.

Expanding the sport’s profile across Europe can only be a good thing for the game, too, and snooker fans appear to have every reason to be optimistic for the near future.

Rob Swan