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 Championship final in which he accused referee Olivier Marteel of ‘looking for trouble’.
Laser-focused to level Stephen Hendry’s seven Crucible titles, a relentless O’Sullivan has bullied the luckless Judd Trump and leads 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 brutally punished as the 46-year-old regularly won at one visit, hitting three century breaks in the process.
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. Aside from asking a security guard to move out of his eyeline, there was no sign of O’Sullivan being remotely rattled.
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 world 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 radiography nurse that he should have waited until after the frame to deal with the matter. Trump kept his composure and reduced the arrears to 5-3. But O’Sullivan, 46, was not done there. After leaving the arena without the customary handshake with the official, he spoke to Eurosport from his dressing room. ‘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, slow motion. He’s trying to say... 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.’
The World Snooker Tour released a statement saying: ‘Ronnie O’Sullivan received a formal warning from the referee following a gesture he made in the eighth frame.’
At the time of going to press, no evidence of a gesture has surfaced.
Trump claimed the first frame of the second session to trim the gap back to one at 5-4. However, O’Sullivan found top gear again and won five frames in a row to lead 10-4. The Rocket claimed to of the next three to take a commanding 12-5 lead into today’s play.