WELSHMAN Ryan Day picked up his second ranking title this season at the Gibraltar Open over the weekend.
It took the 37-year-old just under an hour and a half to demolish two-time ranking finalist Cao Yupeng 4 - 0 with breaks of 100, 72, and 58.
Day, who came into the season as a player labelled one of the best players never to have won a ranking event, now ends the season with at least two.
It was another disappointment for the Chinese 27-year-old Cao Yupeng who after having lost the Scottish Open from well in front against Australian Neil Robertson, couldn't do anything about the potting prowess of the Dynamite, who was in blistering form on the night.
Day is the third Welshman to have won a ranking title this season, with his compatriots Michael White and the great Mark Williams all winning titles this season.
Golden oldies still winning
Here are five stats from this season so far after 17 ranking events.
1) Day has been around the scene years, since 1998, but it has been in the last couple of years that he has really exploded - despite being in previous ranking finals. He won the Riga Masters at the very start of this season.
2) Day is the 14th player to have won over the age of 30 meaning that over 80% of the tour winners this season are over 30.
3) This stat also follows that the average age of the winners so far this season after 17 ranking events is 36.
4) Ryan Day is the fourth player to have won two ranking events or more this season, with Ronnie O'Sullivan claiming four, Mark Williams, two, and John Higgins also two after winning the Welsh Open but a week ago in Cardiff.
5) The #class of 92 trio, in total have notched up between them just under one and a half million pounds in prize money, (£1,391,500) to be exact.
Top 16 battle
The prize money for the Gibraltar Open was a modest 25K, but sees Day in it to compete for a top prize of £125,000 in Llandudno next week with a rolling prize of 30K for anyone who makes a maximum.
As we get towards the big one, the battle for the top 16 places who automatically qualify for the Crucible heats up.
Day is now loitering around the 17th mark - but with a run in the Player's Championship could get there. He faces a tough draw in the first round of that event though as he plays Mark Selby.
Many of the players have a chance of reaching the top 16 after the PC provided they can get past their first tough round draws.
Ironically, for Mark Williams, he plays the Chinese teen Yan Bingtao, the player he beat in the northern Irish Open last year this season to claim a 19th ranking title.
Ronnie O'Sullivan plays the Pocket Dynamo Graeme Dott. Dott is a player in 23rd on the ranking list.
John Higgins and Anthony McGill clash, also two players who met in the final of the Indian Open way back at the start of the season.
Cao Yupeng heads up the rankings from 51st to 43rd after his final appearance in Gibraltar.
