It was another glory, glory night for Ronnie O’Sullivan as snooker’s greatest ever showman continued his quest to slowly re-write the sport’s record books.
His 10-5 win over Shaun Murphy saw him capture a record-equalling sixth UK Championship title so he now sits proudly sit alongside Steve Davis. He now also has 18 major titles in all to draw level with snooker’s best-ever winner Stephen Hendry.
But this victory was than just about numbers and adding another piece of silverware to his vast collection.
It comes 24 years after he won his first UK Championship when he broke through aged 17 to beat the then man of the moment Hendry and show the game a new star was born. Here he is nearly a quarter of a century later and aged 42 still winning and proving his greatest attribute is his longevity and staying power at the top of the sport.
It was also the manner in which he dispatched of Murphy which was so impressive. Locked at 5-5, it looked like for all the world we were heading for a final which would go the distance and at that stage could still have gone either way, but then O’Sullivan notched it up a few gears and played flawless snooker to race to the winning post.
Like all true champions, Ronnie had saved his best for last and produced spell-bounding snooker when it mattered most. O’Sullivan had cruised through most of this tournament without really being troubled and never needed his very best form until now – and of course it was there waiting for him.
When Davis was asked what O’Sullivan’s secret was to still be winning events for so long, he simply said it came down to his talent and we saw this in abundance as he wrapped up this final playing shots other players could only probably dream of.
His cue ball control at the end of this match was out of this world and was a lesson for Murphy who himself has been excellent throughout this tournament. His long potting was far better than O’Sullivan’s throughout the match but O’Sullivan’s tactical brilliance and then clinical break-building when Murphy went one shot too far proved the key difference.
The conclusion of this match was snooker being played at its finest and with this level of performance still in his locker coupled with an almost unshakable focus and application demonstrated at other times during the tournament there’s no saying how long O’Sullivan can keep winning titles for.
This season he’s already wrapped up three ranking event titles, made more centuries than any other player and risen up the world rankings to number two. In this kind of form, he will be competing for the sport’s major titles for a few more years to come yet.
