White's ranking dream dashed

Williams denied White a return to the rankings

Jimmy White's hopes of ending eight barren years without a world ranking title were dashed in Telford when he was beaten by Mark Williams in the semi-finals of the £440,000 Grand Prix.

World champion Williams, snooker's Mr Consistency, beat White 6-2 and will now tackle Ronnie O'Sullivan on Sunday for the first prize of £62,000.

O'Sullivan beat Scotland's Graeme Dott 6-3 to set up another showdwon with Williams.

The "Rocket" last month denied Williams a £100,000 pay-day when he defeated him in the Champions Cup.

O'Sullivan toughed it out in his semi-final

White's elimination ended the 38-year-old's hopes of regaining a world ranking.

"I'm tired mentally," he said, who followed his run to the British Open final a fortnight ago with a series of hard-fought victories this week.

"Basically I didn't counter-act anything Mark did. It was a bad day at the office and I'm gutted to be leaving the tournament after a performance like that."

White squandered a pair of golden scoring chances in the opening frame. Williams pounced with a 64 break and the pattern was set.

That was the best I've produced in the tournament so far but I will need to improve again

  Mark Williams

The Welshman, 25, then powered into a 3-1 advantage at the mid-session interval with further contributions of 74 and 76.

Williams controlled frame five before firing in a run of 100 to increase his lead to 5-1 and was only denied a 6-1 blitz by White clearing the colours to the pink in frame seven after Williams had missed a straight-forward yellow.

The Welsh champion put together a break of 73 break in the eighth to extinguish any lingering hopes White may have had.

Williams, who has appeared in five of the last six finals on the professional circuit and six of the last eight, said: "I'm playing better each round.

"That was the best I've produced in the tournament so far but I will need to improve again.

"Coming here I knew I had to start hitting the ball sweeter than I have been doing and that's the way it's worked out. I'm showing some of my practice form at least and that's got to be a good sign."

Nothing seemed to be going right, things were awkward and the game was hard work

  Ronnie O'Sullivan

O'Sullivan notched his 11th win in 12 matches so far this season.

He needed to rely on his patience, so often his downfall to secure the victory against a resilient Dott.

"I just want to win so badly these days, before I couldn't care less," admitted O'Sullivan.

"That's why I had to be professional out there and do whatever it took to get over the finishing line.

"It means a lot to me, that's why I wasn't relaxed out there. It was one of those matches when I felt negative but I stuck to it and tried to make something happen.

"Nothing seemed to be going right, things were awkward and the game was hard work."