Ronnie O’Sullivan put on a scoring masterclass as he began the defence of his Masters title with a devastating 6-0 demolition of Marco Fu.
The seven-time winner hit three centuries and another four half centuries to seal an emphatic whitewash and demonstrate exactly why he’s so highly fancied to make it a hat-trick of wins at Alexandra Palace.
The BBC commentary and punditry teams could do little but gush over this performance as O’Sullivan settled from the very start and looked like a man on a mission.
The Rocket could hardly have asked for a more perfect start and sent out a very powerful warning to all of his title rivals.
Right now, O’Sullivan is the standard and is playing the game to a level everyone else must play catch up to. He already has three ranking titles in the bag this season and today passed 50 centuries for the season in what is fast becoming one of his golden spells playing the sport.
His care-free attitude and approach to the game is making him more dangerous than ever and if someone is going to stop him lifting The Masters for an eighth time this week, it is most certainly going to take some performance.
You have to feel at least a little bit of sympathy for his opponent Fu who was on the wrong side of this barrage of scoring. He only mustered a total of 35 points on the board all afternoon and like the spectators in the venue was forced to just sit back and watch.
As has become so familiar down the years at The Masters, this is the Ronnie O’Sullivan and it would take a very brave man to say it isn’t going to go all his way yet again this week in front of his adoring home fans.
