Ronnie romps to Welsh win
COMEBACK SEALS FOURTH TITLE
Ronnie o’Sullivan reeled off a magnificent seven frames in a row to claim a record- equalling fourth Welsh open title — and left neil Robertson devastated.
The ‘ Rocket’ trailed his main tour rival 5-2 at one stage at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff but ran out a 9-5 winner to claim the £60,000 prize.
o’Sullivan, who ties Steve Davis and John Higgins on 28 ranking titles, finished with a flourish and a break of 141 — a 10th century of the week.
He has now won all 19 matches he has played in 2016 after also winning the Masters at a canter last month.
o’Sullivan, who started the event with a row over snubbing the chance of a 147 break, said: ‘i played a lot better here this week than i did at the Masters and really found some fluency.
‘it is a fourth Welsh open title — but i’d like it better if i could win it five times.
‘i feel shattered, and could really do with relaxing for a month, playing some exhibitions in order to give Sheffield and the world title a real shot. That’s the one we all want.
‘i think neil is the best player at the moment, he was at 75 or 80 per cent tonight but i was determined that if he won he was going to have to earn it.’
World no 3 Robertson, 34, said: ‘in a way i feel i threw it away. There was a key first frame of the evening when i went into the pack and got nothing — 5-4 and 6-3 are a lot different.
‘Ronnie is a great frontrunner and when he gets his tail up and some momentum, he is hard to stop.’
The week begun with the storm over o’Sullivan refusing the chance of a 14th career 147 maximum break — the 40-year- old deliberately passing up the chance as a protest over a £12,000 prize he called ‘not enough’.
The headlines and spotlight would have thrown many out of their stride — but snooker maverick o’Sullivan responded with a week of utter brilliance.
Always his own harshest critic, the Rocket claimed after his semi-final win over Joe Perry that he had rarely played better than in Cardiff.
Australian Robertson had been itching for a crack at o’Sullivan ever since a painful Crucible last16 loss four years ago.
A combination of o’Sullivan playing fewer events and the luck of the draw, meant that Robertson’s 5-1 win in the 2010 World open showpiece was their only previous final.
Robertson won this season’s UK Championship and Champion of Champions during o’Sullivan’s latest eight-month sabbatical.
And o’Sullivan won January’s Masters without directly running into Robertson, Judd Trump or John Higgins — something the Australian pointed out this week.
o’Sullivan had a near-miss in the last frame of the session at 5-2 down when Robertson had to tell referee Terry Camilleri to issue his opponent with a warning after missing the brown twice with the black visible. A third miss could have seen o’Sullivan docked a frame.
But having got out of jail, o’Sullivan capitalised on misses from a suddenly demoralised opponent, adding the first four frames of the evening to lead 7-5 and he soon closed out the match.