O’Sullivan wins seventh World Championship
EMOTIONAL Ronnie O’Sullivan shrugged off a stirring fightback from Judd Trump to claim a record-equalling seventh World Snooker title at the Crucible.
O’Sullivan had seen a seven-frame overnight lead reduced to just three by Trump in the afternoon session before recovering when play resumed in the evening to polish off an 18-13 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.
With victory the 46-year-old matched Stephen Hendry’s modern day record, picked up a £500,000 winner’s cheque, and surpassed Ray Reardon to become the oldest world champion in history.
Yet victory was far from a formality for O’Sullivan. Despite sailing into the final day with a 12-5 advantage, some question marks lingered after a tempestuous opening session on Sunday, in which he appeared irritated and clashed with referee Olivier Marteel.
World Snooker Tour officials have confirmed they will take no further action after Marteel issued O’Sullivan a formal warning for a lewd gesture in the eighth frame, which O’Sullivan vehemently denied, doubling down on his affront in a subsequent television interview.
The incident marred recognition of a ruthless first day performance by O’Sullivan, who punished a series of misses by Trump to win a streak of seven frames out of nine, and raised the prospect of becoming only the fourth player to beat his final opponent with a session to spare.
Trump had other ideas, and gradually ensured that attention turned to whether the 32-year-old could mount what would have been the biggest final comeback since Dennis Taylor’s recovery from eight frames down to sink Steve Davis in 1985.
Trump won the first three frames of the day and although a sluggish O’Sullivan stopped the rot, he still looked far from comfortable, producing the pivotal error in the next frame when he fired a red well wide as Trump loomed ever closer at 13-9.
A nerve-jangling clearance from Trump, in response to O’Sullivan leaving a black dangling over the top pocket, made it 13-10, and the pair shared the last two frames of an engrossing afternoon to leave Trump with a glimmer of hope having cut the overnight lead by more than half.
But in front of a packed and suitably raucous Crucible crowd, O’Sullivan immediately eased the pressure by taking the first two frames in the evening with breaks of 82 and 88, each time building on errors by Trump who not unreasonably determined that his hopes of completing a fantasy fightback lay in going for broke.
Trump would win two of the next three, and ensured another bit of history by delivering a record-breaking 109th century of the tournament - fittingly, with a clearance of 109 - to close the gap to 17-13 before O’Sullivan got over the line.
In addition to his seven tournament wins, O’Sullivan holds a number of other records at the Crucible.
His 30th appearance at the tournament matched Steve Davis’ all-time high, while his run over the last 17 days took him to 74 wins at the famous Sheffield venue, beating Hendry’s record by four.
His 20 quarter-finals and 13 semifinals are also records while, aged 46, O’Sullivan surpasses his former coach Ray Reardon as the oldest ever world champion.
Along the way, he also passed 200 century breaks at the Crucible - the most memorable coming in 1997 when he recorded the fastest ever 147, in five minutes and eight seconds against Mick Price.
O’Sullivan already held the record of 20 wins across the ‘Triple Crown’ events but has now won the World and UK Championships and the Masters on seven occasions each.
His victory over Trump came in his eighth Crucible final, exactly matching his 7-1 record in UK Championship deciders, with his only defeats coming against Mark Selby - in Sheffield in 2014 and at York’s Barbican Centre in 2016.
He has reached 13 Masters finals, with a far more mixed record. The most recent, in 2019, saw him beaten 10-4 by Trump.
Hendry won six Masters and five UK titles for a total of 18 majors, while Davis won the World and UK six times each and the Masters three times.
O’Sullivan’s 39th ranking title also extended his lead over Hendry (36) in that list, with Higgins (31) the only other player above 30. Trump remains just outside the top five on 23.