Darren Lifts His 6th World Masters Snooker Title; Debutant Manan Claims Silver

Darren Morgan from Wales has won the World Masters Snooker title 6th time in his career. Today in the final, he defeated former World Team Cup Champion Manan Chandra from India who was playing in the Masters’ category for the first time.

Darren started with an opening break of 52 points in the first frame and the same was well countered by Manan with a break of 44 points to come to par. Post that they both played a few safe shots on blue and then Manan potted the remaining three colors to pocket the first frame.

In the second frame, Darren made a strong return to winning the frame and leveled the match 1-1. He further went ahead to win the next two frames to lead 3-1.

In the fifth frame, Manan fought back and managed to cut the deficit to 2-3 but Darren once again went ahead after winning the 6th frame. The lead for him was 4-1.

In the seventh frame, Manan returned with a break of 83 points to keep his hopes alive. He was set to counter Darren in the eighth frame too where he obtained an initial lead of 23 points. When he missed, Darren got a brilliant chance to clear all, but after scoring 25 points, he missed simple pink in the center pocket and once again Manan returned to the driving seat to try for setting up the decider. On 41 Manan missed the long blue and landed safely. After that there were multiple safe shots and in between some occasional pots too.

They both were giving chances to each other but finally, Darren succeeded with brilliant pots on blue, pink, and final black to lift his 6th World Masters Snooker title.

The semi-finalists Noppadon Noppachorn of Thailand and Mark Tuite shared the joint bronze.