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ROCKET RACES TO FOURTH UK CROWN
16/12/2007 22:13:00
Ronnie O'Sullivan completed a resounding 10-2 defeat of Stephen Maguire in Telford tonight to win the Maplin UK Championship.
The Rocket raced away to an 8-0 lead in the first session and added the two frames he required to clinch the trophy and £100,000 first prize. He was joined on centre stage by partner Jo and 22-month-old daughter Lily as he celebrated victory.
The scoreline was almost as emphatic as O'Sullivan's 10-1 win over Ken Doherty in 2001 and Maguire's 10-1 defeat of David Gray in 2004.
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It's O'Sullivan's fourth UK title, having won snooker's second-biggest ranking event at the age of 17 in 1993 and again in 1997 and 2001. He now has 19 ranking titles, putting him third on the all-time list behind Stephen Hendry (36) and Steve Davis (28).
Victory bridges a gap of 33 months since the Chigwell cueman's last ranking title, the 2005 Irish Masters, and ends a run of three consecutive defeats in ranking finals.
These statistics are somewhat misleading as he has won the SAGA Insurance Masters twice and Premier League three times since 2005.
O'Sullivan came on to the snooker scene alongside John Higgins and Mark Williams, with Hendry, Peter Ebdon and Ken Doherty in the early part of their careers. But while all of those have struggled for form this season and appear to be fading forces, O'Sullivan has re-asserted his status as the sport's man to beat. |
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When he is focussed mentally and prepared to take a patient approach on the table, as he did yesterday for 16 frames against Mark Selby, his talent has the chance to shine and he can be virtually impossibe to beat, as Maguire found to his cost.
O'Sullivan, who has moved into pole position in the latest world rankings, also showed with his deciding frame 147 against Selby that he has an electrifying star quality which is found rarely in any sport.
Maguire, who possesses a fierce determination for success, gleaned from years of practising with Higgins and Hendry, may take some time to recover from the margin of defeat.
But he has had a superb end to the year, returning towards the form which made him UK Champion in 2004. In winning the Northern Ireland Trophy and reaching the final here, he has climbed to second in the latest rankings.
The 26-year-old Glaswegian won the opening frame tonight with a break of 99 to avoid the possibility of a whitewash, which would have been only the second ever in a ranking final.
But O'Sullivan was soon back in the groove as a superb long red initiated a 126 to put him 9-1 ahead. Maguire then gained a further measure of respectability by taking the 11th frame with a run of 57.
But his hopes of taking the contest to a mid-session interval disappeared when he missed a simple red in the 12th, O'Sullivan sealing victory conclusively with a 94.
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