David Grace celebrated the new 2017/18 snooker season just days after the World Championships with a victorious victory over Nigel Bond in the pro-am in Vienna - 5 - 2.
The 32-year-old Leeds potter a couple of weeks ago graced the stage at Snooker's top tournament at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, but lost in the first round to Kyren Wilson despite a great run in the first session.
But it was all Grace in Vienna as he came through the rounds to play the former World Championship finalist in 1995 and 1996 British Open winner Nigel Bond.
Grace ended the 2016/17 season on a high with his highest ranking of 44, and goes into the new season with renewed confidence after scooping the seventh Vienna Snooker Open since its inauguration in 2010.
Since that year, it has been won by all English players - and double combo wins by Mark King and Peter Ebdon.
Ebdon did not defend the title this year, but Essex's Mark King, who narrowly failed to reach the last 32 at the Crucible by losing at Ponds Forge, lost in the last 8 to Alexander Ursenbache.
Grace as the winner took away a 2,500 Euro winners cheque and the trophy Vienna Snooker Open 2017.
Bond, who is a Head coach at the Victoria Snooker Academy in Sheffield, was in his second Vienna Open final, after losing to Mark King in 2014.
The 51-year-old lost in the qualifying rounds at Ponds Forge in the second round 10 - 3 to Scotland's Stephen Maguire who did well this year as a qualifier reaching the quarters at the Crucible..
Amazing times for Grace
Grace is also an avid painter but his best artistry comes from potting balls on the table and building breaks - and his claim to fame all started a year or so back when he reached the semi-finals of the UK Championship.
The Open is played in the Koo Wien Snooker Club in Vienna each year and this year 80 players were fielded.
An Austrian teenager Florian Nuble made a breakthrough in the tournament at 16 racking his first tournament ton - a 104, and it apparently earned him a spot in the head of the rankings in the Austrian Championship.
Nuble had knocked out Scotland's Ross Muir, also known as The Glove.
The Vienna Snooker Open marks the start of another busy season for top pros and amateurs, before the serious ranking tournaments begin in earnest.
There are the qualifiers for Riga, the China Championship in early June and then the Riga Masters which begins at the end of June (23rd to 25th).
But first begins the annual Qualifying school for the tour this month - with it starting from the Tuesday 9th to ending on the Saturday the 20th May.
Sandwiched in between that is also the annual Charity snooker event held at the South West Snooker Academy, in Gloucester, the Pink Ribbon.
It's also a busy season in the summer with the World Cup being held in July.
See also, if you missed it, Sat nav Selby navigates to a third World title.
