Sport

Jordan Brown shines to set up Ronnie O'Sullivan showdown in Welsh final

'Antrim Ferrari' Jordan Brown continued his remarkable Welsh Open run with a 6-1 defeat of Stephen Maguire to set up a final showdown with Ronnie O'Sullivan
'Antrim Ferrari' Jordan Brown continued his remarkable Welsh Open run with a 6-1 defeat of Stephen Maguire to set up a final showdown with Ronnie O'Sullivan 'Antrim Ferrari' Jordan Brown continued his remarkable Welsh Open run with a 6-1 defeat of Stephen Maguire to set up a final showdown with Ronnie O'Sullivan

ANTRIM’S Jordan Brown will face world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan in the final of snooker’s Bet Victor Welsh Open on Sunday.

Four of Brown’s five victories in Newport this week on his way to a first-ever ranking event semi-final came in deciding frames - including the notable scalp of three-times world champion Mark Selby in Friday’s quarter-final - but he had things a lot easier against Scotland’s Stephen Maguire on Saturday, with two centuries (135 and 113) in the first four frames laying the foundations for a 6-1 victory.

The 33-year-old world number 66 will now take on six-times world champion O’Sullivan - 6-1 winner over home hope Mark Williams in Saturday’s second semi-final - with the biggest payday of his four-season professional career long since guaranteed.

The £10,000 he banked for reaching the first round of the World Championship in Sheffield last summer - he lost in the first round to Selby - was matched when he reached a first-ever ranking quarter-final at the German Masters last month.

He lost that last-eight clash 5-1 to Barry Hawkins but bettered it with his win over Selby on Friday. Now he will take at least £30,000 back to his Antrim base on Sunday evening, rising to £70,000 should he pull off another against-the-odds win over O’Sullivan.

Victory over Maguire has also propelled Brown into the top 16 of the one-year ranking list, guaranteeing him a spot in next week’s Cazoo Players Championship in Milton Keynes. There, he will be in the hunt for a £125,000 top prize alongside the game’s elite.