O’Sullivan clinches 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. Perry, who came from 5-2 down to beat Barry Hawkins, last year’s runnerup, 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’.” —