O’Sullivan wins 7th world title
LONDON: An emotional Ronnie O’Sullivan has held off a fightback from Judd Trump to claim a recordequalling seventh World Snooker title at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England.
O’Sullivan had seen a sevenframe overnight lead reduced to just three by Trump in Monday’s afternoon session before recovering when play resumed in the evening to polish off an 1813 win.
O’Sullivan shared a lingering embrace lasting more than a minute with Trump after getting over the line with a break of 83, before also greeting his children who ran into the arena to share his moment.
‘‘I didn’t really feel like the favourite to win,’’ O’Sullivan said.
‘‘I doubted myself a little bit, so to finally get a result like I did is special.
‘‘I’ve grown up with Judd, we’ve shared a lot of time on the practice tables, so to hear the words he said to me afterwards, I didn’t realise what that meant to him.
‘‘It was nice to hear I was part of his development and it was a special moment. He choked me up.’’
With victory, the 46yearold O’Sullivan matched Stephen Hendry’s modern day record, picked up a £500,000 ($NZ970,500) winner’s cheque, and surpassed Ray Reardon to become the oldest world champion in history.
‘‘Honestly, it [the record] has never been something on my mind,’’ he said.
‘‘I didn’t come here to equal Stephen Hendry’s record, I came here to play snooker and to be honest I found it very, very tough.’’
O’Sullivan sailed into the final day with a 125 advantage, but Trump closed the gap to 1310 before the pair shared the last two frames of an engrossing afternoon.
In front of a packed and suitably raucous crowd, O’Sullivan immediately eased the pressure by taking the first two frames in the evening with breaks of 82 and 88.
Trump would win two of the next three, and ensured another bit of history by delivering a recordbreaking 109th century of the tournament — fittingly, with a clearance of 109 — to close the gap to 1713 before O’Sullivan got over the line.
Trump admitted he had left himself with too much to do and said it ‘‘wouldn’t surprise me if [Ronnie] goes out and beats the record now’’ for most world titles.
O’Sullivan, who won his first title in 2001, has the most career ranking titles (39), is the only player to make more than 1000 competitive centuries, and has made more maximum breaks of 147 in competitive play than anyone else. — AAP