Ryan Day fought back from 4-0 down to beat Stuart Bingham 10-8 and lift the inaugural Romanian Masters trophy on Sunday in Bucharest.Day won’t gain any ranking points for his triumph in Romania as the tournament only boasts the status of an invitational but the 37 year-old can still walk away a happy man who is some €50,000 richer.It prolongs a remarkable spell for the Welshman, who only last week secured his second ranking event title of the season at the Gibraltar Open.
Indeed, the world number 17 heads back to Llandudno for the Players Championship in his home country today in the form of his career and ready to launch an attack on the top 16 in an effort to gain an automatic spot for the upcoming World Championship.
Day hasn’t qualified for the lucrative China Open at the start of April so he needs a strong showing in north Wales to usurp some of the players ahead of him, with only £4,000-odd separating him and Masters champion Mark Allen in 16th place.
Mark Selby represents Day’s opening challenge in the Players Championship and it arguably couldn’t be a better time to face the world champion as Selby continues to struggle with his game during this campaign.
Against Bingham in the Romanian Masters final, it looked as though Day’s run of ten straight wins was going to come to an abrupt end when the 2015 world champion took the opening four frames before the mid-session interval of the afternoon session.
However, Day fought back superbly by winning four out of the next five frames – sandwiching Bingham’s brilliant 124 – to trail by only one going into the evening’s bout of play.
Day immediately levelled with a run of 50 and pinched a close next frame on the colours to gain the initiative for the first time to rattle his English opponent.
Bingham, who was featuring in a first final since his return from a three-month ban for betting, duly constructed runs of 84 and 111 to win three out of the next four frames and lead once more by 8-7.
Yet, Day bounced back one final time and was not to be denied as he reeled off the remaining three frames for a great success at the Circul Metropolitan.
It was a disappointing end for Bingham, who must have thought that a first piece of silverware this term was on the cards following his previous runner-up finish in the European Masters at the end of 2017.
But Day is clearly riding the crest of a wave at the moment and it will be interesting to see how long he can keep this streak going for.
The Romanian Masters was a decent tournament all in all that provided the top players with another opportunity to reap the rewards of the sport’s continued growth into new markets around the world.
It was a shame that the competition wasn’t properly televised, with coverage limited to the Eurosport Player, but perhaps there will be an opening for it to grow into something more substantial next year.
Either way, Day will have fond memories of both it and the month of March in 2018 as he finally starts to realise his potential of being a regular winner on the circuit.
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