Davis Downs Murphy For Six Red Title

Congratulations to Mark Davis who today defeated Shaun Murphy 8-4 to become the winner of the 2012 Six Red World Championship in Thailand, adding to his previous title under the format back in 2009…

  • Click here to view the full results from the tournament

Following his 7-2 victory against Ricky Walden in the semi-finals, Mark Davis produced another fine performance today to defeat Shaun Murphy 8-4 and secure his first professional title since 2009.

A semi-finalist in the recent Wuxi Classic, Mark has started the season in strong form and particularly impressed me during his match yesterday against Ricky Walden where aside from a brief wobble as the winning line approached, he produced some top drawer snooker.

Today he opened with a frame-winning break of 72 and though he dropped the following two frames, soon recovered to take seven of the final nine to secure victory.

Mark’s coach Steve Feeney was understandably thrilled:

“I am really proud of him. It’s his biggest win to date financially and I’m sure that means a big treat for the family.”

“He has worked so hard on his SightRight routines during the five years that I have coached him and has come a long way in that time. Hopefully there is greater success around the corner this year. He has been more accurate, consistent and has been playing great for the last three to four years.”

“His match confidence is building and this win will be the start of many more.”

Of course Mark is no stranger to success in this format, having previously taken the 2009 6 Red World Championship in Ireland with a 6-3 success against Mark Williams and it is interesting that he has emerged victorious in another six red event three years on. On a technical point, I think I am right in saying that this is in fact a separate tournament to that in Ireland (note the subtle 6 red, six red distinction), but it is fair to say that Mark has become the world champion under the format for the second time, completing what is a remarkable double.

I must confess that having narrowly missed out on the top 16 at seemingly every seedings revision last season, I had wondered whether Mark’s chance had gone, but playing as well as he is at the moment and having recent secured valuable ranking points in Wuxi, he has every chance of finally breaking his duck at some point this season. I hope that he does it because as Steve has said above, he has been playing well for a long time now and deserves to make the top 16 at some stage.

Next stop for Mark and indeed the snooker circuit as a whole though will be Australia, as Stuart Bingham looks to defend his maiden ranking title in Bendigo from Monday…