Cardiff Open Singles Final
Ryan Bowgen 1 v 4 Khurram Khan
Huge congratulations to Fairwater Cons Mack’s Khurram Khan after he won the Cardiff Open Singles for the first time following a 4-1 victory over The Cons’ Ryan Bowgen. The match was closer than the scoreline suggests, but Khan was able to clinch crucial frames at the right time to give himself the edge in a closely-fought contest.
The opening frame was dominated by long periods of safety play, with both players anxious not to make a mistake and let their opponent in with an easy chance, and once the black was tied up in amongst the reds it made scoring difficult. Both players had flukes on the reds but were unable to take advantage, with Khan having a small advantage heading into the colours. Last year’s runner-up was determined to clinch the title and an excellent snooker on the yellow gave him the advantage, before he sealed the frame on the blue.
Bowgen started well in the next but was unable to make the most of a good early chance, and Khan showed excellent matchplay to create a chance later in the frame, which he took advantage of in making a 43 break. He then potted yellow and green to leave Bowgen needing snookers and sealed the frame not long after to go 2-0 ahead.
The next frame was another that was dominated by safety play with the prospect of a re-rack looking likely at one stage, with a red over the corner pocket. Khan’s long potting was keeping him in control of the table, but a 24 break from Bowgen helped him to pull away and with the frame close on the colours, he potted green and brown to move ahead on the blue, with a great pot on the pink sealing the frame to reduce the deficit to 2-1.
That frame seemed to mark a momentum shift and Bowgen started to become much more fluent in the balls, but some very good safety from Khan kept him at bay before he took advantage of a chance to move ahead with a handful of reds remaining. He then built on this lead to move snookers ahead by the time they got to the colours and leave him one frame from victory.
The fifth frame started positively for Bowgen as he had an opportunity in and around the black spot, but a very unlucky in-off prevented him from making a sizeable contribution. Khan then backed up some very tight safety play with good long potting to build a lead heading into the second half of the frame, and an excellent 32 break finished things off to give him the win and his first Cardiff Open Singles title.
