O’Sullivan wins record seventh Masters title
LONDON: Snooker great Ronnie O’Sullivan won a record seventh Masters title after beating Joe Perry 10-7 in an all-English final at London’s Alexandra Palace on Sunday.
Victory saw O’Sullivan surpass the record of six Masters titles he had shared previously with Stephen Hendry.
O’Sullivan, a five-times world champion, may have been both the fans’ and the bookmakers’ favourite but the 41-year- old still had to come 4-1 down to defeat Perry.
“Joe played a brilliant tournament, a really good match and he should’ve beaten me, I got lucky -- I stole it,” O’Sullivan told the BBC.
“Joe will come again and he is a tough competitor. I’m just relieved to have got over the line. The fans have been unbelievable and I really enjoyed this week.”
As for setting a new Masters record, O’Sullivan added: “It is great to get some records, I still have the World Championship one to get ( Hendry holds the modern era record of seven world titles).
“When I was younger I was just happy to win one, so to win seven, someone up there is looking after me,” explained O’Sullivan, nicknamed ‘ The Rocket’ because iof his attacking style round the table.
Perry, who came from 5 - 2 down to beat Barry Hawkins, last year’s runner-up, 6- 5 in the semi-finals was proud at proving he could still be a force in the game after appearing in his first final of a ‘ Triple Crown’ event -the World Championship, the UK Championship and the Masters -- at the age of 42.
“I’ve proved a lot, that there is still some life left in me and it has given me the belief to go on and win a big one,” said Perry.
“I got Ronnie on a good day really. At 4-1 up I got a bit carried away and it was not until I was 8- 4 down I thought, ‘I’m going for it’.”
O’Sullivan struggled in the early stages before, with Perry starting to miss important points, he ended the afternoon session all square a 4- 4 following breaks of 42, 44 and 55.
O’Sullivan started the evening’s play the stronger, winning the session’s first four frames to make it seven in a row in all, including a break of 85 in the 12th.
Perry staunched the f low of frames against him with an impressive break of 117 and then closed to within two thanks to a contribution of 92.
O’Sullivan then moved to within a frame of victory courtesy of a clearance of 112 only to miss a routine black as Perry took the 16th frame.
Perry was 39- 0 up in the next but O’Sullivan recovered to seal victory. —