This year’s UK Championship final serves up another edition of one of the sport’s fiercest rivalries as Ronnie O’Sullivan goes head-to-head with Shaun Murphy to capture the first proper major title of the season.
With parts of the south of England experiencing heavy bouts of snow through the night and more forecast later on up north, there couldn’t be a better day to sit back at home in the warm to watch what should be an absolute cracker from the Barbican in York.
There’s always a special feel in the air when these two meet – not least because they are both very classy cueists. There’s certainly no love lost between the pair either and this meeting takes on extra significance in the fact it’s their first meeting in a triple crown major final and comes just a month after they met in the final of the Champion of Champions in Coventry.
Murphy won that contest 10-8 and O’Sullivan will be desperate to exact revenge to settle a score. O’Sullivan is also looking to land his third ranking title of the season and with victory would see himself level up with Steve Davis to become the joint record-holder of the UK Championship with a sixth title.
The Rocket’s greatness is largely defined by his great longevity in the game with his appearance in this his seventh UK final coming 24 years after he first won this event back in 1993 aged just 17.
O’Sullivan probably hasn’t been at his very best for long spells so far in this tournament, navigating his way to the final without facing a single player from the world’s top 16. But despite this, his attitude and application has been second to none and has still seen him scramble his way through to the final with relative ease. Now that the curtain is coming down on another major final, you just know he will be firing.
#baizeofglory @betway
Murphy meanwhile has arguably been playing the more pulsating snooker this week but can perhaps count himself lucky to still be around having trailed Liam Highfield 5-4 in the last 64 before squeezing his way across the line. He hasn’t looked back since and has put on some great performances to come through the field.
It’s fair to say the Magician is enjoying one of his best ever seasons. This is his third ranking final of the campaign already although a title has so far eluded him. He was superb to capture the Champion of Champions title and just generally appears to be playing with the shackles loosened and producing great attacking snooker as a result.
Murphy has one UK title to his name when he lifted silverware in Telford back in 2008. He’s already among the elite list of players to be a triple crown winner but hasn’t won any of the events on multiple occasions with many people quoting him as an underachiever for this reason given his very vast talents.
Both of these players love to attack and you can be promised a final here which will be high quality and open from ball one.
