A full quarter of a century after winning the World Snooker Championship for the first time at the age of 25, a now 50-year-old Mark Williams will try to claim a fourth world title when he strides out at the Crucible Theatre on Sunday afternoon.

If the veteran Welshman always exudes an air of nonchalance, no matter how high the stakes, surely even he will have one or two butterflies fluttering as he begins a best-of-35 encounter with Zhao Xintong, when he will take his place as the oldest finalist in Crucible history.

He didn’t outwardly show any nerves as he brushed aside world No 1 Judd Trump 17-14 in a captivating semi-final, turning a match that was 8-8 overnight into a relatively comfortable triumph, but afterwards acknowledged that he was feeling the pressure when Trump began to hit back from 16-12.

“I was starting to sweat a bit towards the end,” conceded Williams. “He came back with a couple of frames and I knew if I left him in, he was going to probably make a break. I was under pressure.

“I'm not going to lie this time, I felt it at the end as well. But I’m in the final, I can't believe it.”

Williams claims he can no longer see properly, calling himself “half-blind” throughout the tournament and has lens replacement surgery pencilled in for next month, although quipped that he would be looking for his deposit back from Optical Express after his performances across this fortnight.

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In the semi-final, he certainly potted and built breaks like a man with 20/20 vision to the delight of a Crucible crowd that has been enamoured with him ever since he reached his first world final in 1999 and won his first world title a year later.

A compelling first two sessions had left the semi-final locked at 8-8 heading into Saturday morning, after Williams had fought back from 7-3 down on Friday.

The third session saw the Welshman continue his momentum, winning four of the first six frames – with breaks of 84 and 73 the highlight – to move two clear, before Trump narrowed the deficit to 12-11 with a run of 64 in frame 23. That set up a fascinating final frame of the morning, in which Williams prevailed to take a 13-11 advantage into the evening.

If Trump needed a fast start to ensure a classic Crucible evening, he endured the exact opposite. Breaks of 67, 65 and 100 ensured the 50-year-old took three of the first four frames, despite a Trump 104 sandwiched in there to move just one away from victory at 16-12 at the mid-session interval.

Victory seemed inevitable but, to his credit, the world No 1 dug deep, winning frame 29 at the second time of asking and then making another century in the next to sow the first seeds of doubt at 16-14. But Williams came through in the crunch – making one final ton to see the match out.

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Trump was typically magnanimous in defeat although he admitted that playing Williams, with all his canniness and smarts accrued from a 33-year career as a professional, is a unique challenge.

“It's different,” explained Trump. “It's difficult to get into a rhythm against him because he's he's very unique. The shot choice is quite awkward, and he's probably the best person at potting just strange balls.

“I think just when it looks like there's nothing on, he comes up with something. I think there was a frame to go 13-11, I missed the black and then there's nothing really on, and I've lost the frame. So he's very, very good at that and no one else really does that.

“I think he kind of sniffs out the opportunity where other people just get down and casually play a shot, whereas he takes his time and sees a shot that that can win the frame from nowhere.”

Williams will certainly need all that nous against ascending talent Zhao, who is 22 years younger than his final opponent and just dismantled Ronnie O’Sullivan 17-7 with a session to spare in the other semi-final.

The 28-year-old is not without controversy, having only recently returned from a ban for being caught up in match-fixing, meaning he is technically competing as an amateur despite being a former UK Championship winner and top-10 player.

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He is undoubtedly a huge talent and Williams remembers first coming across him as a pre-teen in an exhibition event.

“I know he's an amateur, but we all know he's not an amateur,” said Williams. “I played him in an exhibition quite a few years ago. I think he was only about 12.

“There were about 500 people in there live, probably two or three million people watching on TV as it was in China. It was 1-1 in this exhibition and he went and knocked in breaks of 130 and 138 or so, and won 3-1, the little s***!

“And here we are 16 or 17 years later, I’m playing him in the world final, which is unbelievable.”

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