Breaks

Nural Khan 55

Congratulations to Nural Khan after he defeated Terry Garland 3-2 to win the Cardiff Open Plate Singles at Mackintosh Sports Club in a closely-fought match.

Both players had chances in the first frame, but a couple of 18 breaks from Khan was enough to win on the colours to take the lead. It was a similar start in the next with neither player able to pull away, but some great potting from Garland saw him 16 up on the yellow, but he missed a tricky pot to the middle leaving Khan with a chance to clear the colours to win. He sank the yellow and green before a tremendous brown down the cushion with the rest left him on the blue, with one of the shots of the match seeing him screw back the length of the table from pink to black to seal the frame.

Garland knew he had to respond and he did so with a brilliant display of long potting in the third frame, with two early visits of 16 giving him a good lead. Khan had a couple of half chances to respond, but Garland closed out the frame with a 21 break to pull one back. The next frame was a scrappy affair but Garland dominated with great safety play and single ball potting, with an expertly-laid snooker behind the pink with two reds remaining giving him the chance to close out the frame and draw level at 2-2.

It was fitting that an excellent match was going to be settled by a deciding frame and Garland had the first opportunity with a good chance to build an early lead, but a missed red to the middle proved costly as Khan took full advantage with a fantastic 55 break to take control of the frame. Some safety play followed with Garland creating a half-chance but he missed a mid-distance red and the concession came on the final red to finish the match and give Khan the title.