Ronnie gives ref a rocket
O’Sullivan snaps… then racks up big lead
THE many sides of Ronnie O’Sullivan were on show during an absorbing and explosive first day of the World Snooker Championship final in which he accused referee Olivier Marteel of ‘looking for trouble’.
A relentless O’Sullivan bullied the luckless Judd Trump to lead 12-5. He requires just six frames today to end any argument about being the greatest of all time.
But a high-quality opening session was soured by a row with the Belgian official in the eighth frame, which resulted in a formal warning.
It is further evidence that O’Sullivan — who has been filmed all season for an all-access documentary and has been wearing a microphone — is unparalleled in the entertainment business.
Imposing and aggressive, he rattled off two streaks of five consecutive frames. Almost every Trump error was punished as the 46-year-old regularly won at one visit, hitting three centuries.
To his credit, Trump initially refused to be bowed. But O’Sullivan simply turned the screw in the evening session.
Away from the table, the drama came yesterday afternoon. At 5-2 up, the final frame of the session was finely poised. O’Sullivan failed to get out of a snooker and returned to his seat. Marteel followed and accused him of making a gesture.
Pointing at the referee, the six-time champion replied: ‘Tell me, tell me, what did you see? You tell me what you saw. You saw nothing. Go look at the camera. You saw nothing. Don’t start.’ Marteel approached Trump, who told the 52-year-old he should have waited until after the frame to deal with the matter. Trump kept his composure to reduce the arrears to 5-3.
But O’Sullivan was not done there. After leaving the arena without a handshake with the official, he spoke to Eurosport.
‘He just seems to be looking for trouble, I just get a vibe from the guy,’ he said. ‘They’ve got hundreds of cameras out there — they can go and check them all. ‘I’ll let the ref talk to you because I think he’s trying to create something. He needs to deal with it, not me.’
A World Snooker Tour statement said: ‘Ronnie O’Sullivan received a formal warning from the referee following a gesture he made in the eighth frame.’
Trump began in nerve-settling fashion, winning the opener with a break of 72. But the 2019 champion spent much of the afternoon in his seat after missed long pots helped O’Sullivan race into a 5-1 lead.
The Rocket made breaks of 120 and 105 and had no right to win the fourth frame, but did so with a double off a respotted black.
In the opening frame last night, Trump capitalised on a missed red to claim a confidence-boosting opener. That soon changed as O’Sullivan won the next five frames, the second with a fine 118 break.
He eventually took the session 7-2. In this form, those with tickets for today’s final session will be worried.