CRUCIBLE THEATRE, SHEFFIELD
| [8] | Kyren Wilson | 8-18 | Ronnie O'Sullivan | [6] |
2 5-4 53-61 (KW 53), 19-77 (51), 92-0 (92), 79-53 (KW 50), 82-25, 86-0 (58), 17-82, 101-0 (100), 60-68
3 1-7 74-0 (73), 15-113 (53), 33-109 (61), 17-88 (57), 12-65 (60), 28-71 (71), 15-72 (72), 7-69
4 0-1 1-104 (96)
RONNIE O'SULLIVAN ran away with the final of the World Snooker Championships to seal a sixth title - and he now stands just one short of all-time Crucible leader Stephen Hendry.
The Rocket won 18-8 against Kyren Wilson to go level in the record books on six alongside Steve Davis and his former coach Ray Reardon.
For his part, Wilson was making his first appearance in this showpiece final - but, in fairness to him, far more experienced players would have similarly wilted in the face of O'Sullivan's onslaught in the third session.
Oddly, the second day of the final began with high hopes of a close match - and Wilson took the opening frame of the third session with a break of 73 to close the gap to 10-8.
That was quite some achievement for the Warrior, considering he had trailed 8-2 early on - and, at 10-8, O'Sullivan could have been forgiven for being consumed by self-doubt, despite his lead.
After all, the Rocket had complained about the struggles with his cue action throughout the tournament and he fidgeted regularly with his cue during the second session while Wilson was chipping away at the lead.
Certainly, there would have been long odds offered at 10-8 on the 28-year-old from Kettering failing to win another frame in the match - but, incredibly, that is exactly what transpired.
O'Sullivan was still not in top gear by his own ridiculous standards but - in the third session - six consecutive half centuries extended his advantage to an impregnable 16-8.
Wilson was a goner - and, at the end of the 24th frame, he picked up his extension and asked match referee Marcus Eckardt if it was the end of the session.
Unfortunately for Wilson, there was still another frame of pain to go in the afternoon - and, inevitably, O'Sullivan took it to make it 17-8.
The final session of the tournament therefore began without any semblance of tension and in fact lasted just 11 minutes as O'Sullivan confirmed his complete dominance with a closing break of 98, only narrowly missing out on a century.
Wilson was left to rue several missed opportunities on the first day when O'Sullivan stole some unlikely frames despite feeling unsure of himself.
Both the last frame of the first session and the first frame of the second session were won by the Rocket on the black - while Wilson also had the chance to close to 9-8 overnight but missed a straightforward red.
So, it easily could have been 10-7 in reverse if Wilson had taken those chances - and, if that had been the case, it seems unlikely that O'Sullivan would have dominated the second day in the way he did.
But competitions are not played on a hypothetical basis, something to which the Warrior can attest following his incredible semi final against Anthony McGill.
Wilson trailed 6-2, led 14-11, and trailed again 16-15 in the first-to-17 encounter - but forced a decider which went on to become perhaps the craziest frame ever played.
McGill got in first and was extremely unfortunate to make just 39 after smashing into the pack of reds and being left with a tough shot to the right-centre.
Wilson responded with 47 before missing a far easier red to the left-centre - but was saved by the final red which was tight to the left cushion.
And so, the madness began.
The Warrior controlled the early safety exchanges with McGill in-off twice before a beauty of a shot from Wilson left his Scottish opponent in all sorts of bother.
McGill was left behind a full-ball snooker with the cue ball between the left-centre jaw and the yellow which was off its spot. The last remaining red ball was positioned towards the right-corner pocket, which itself had been blocked by the black.
Ultimately, the qualifier - playing off two cushions - missed the red on seven occasions and potted the black with another attempt to concede 35 points in fouls and leave himself needing a snooker.
However, McGill got the snooker straightaway when Wilson - in trying to put his opponent back in the same position - instead went in-off in the left-centre pocket.
Bizarrely, Wilson then went in-off in the right-centre pocket with his very next shot to gift another four points to McGill.
Yet still, the next big chance fell to the Warrior with the red now precariously close to the right-centre.
Unfortunately for Wilson, though, it was not close enough to knock in from the baulk cushion and the obstinate ball was merely left even nearer to the jaw of the pocket following his attempt.
The two players then played almost identical shots off the baulk rail but both missed the red altogether to trade fouls and leave the frame score standing at 94-64 to Wilson.
McGill eventually got the shot right and potted the black over the pocket as well as the yellow - but then snookered himself behind the pink when on the green.
The Scotsman escaped but, having accrued so many points through fouls, Wilson needed just the green to leave his opponent once again needing a snooker.
Wilson duly potted the green following another high-quality prolonged exchange of safety - and only then through an outrageous fluke.
Intending to play another safety shot, Wilson instead knocked the ball off three cushions around baulk and up the table into the top-left pocket.
Unsurprisingly, it had all got too much - and a clearly emotional Wilson had to compose himself in his seat before taking on his next shot, another safety on the brown.
McGill - needing a snooker - potted brown and blue before making several reasonable attempts with only pink and black remaining.
It was, quite frankly, a hopeless pursuit - but the frame had been so mind-boggling, it was surely worth a go.
Eventually, though, Wilson sank the pink to close out the longest frame of the 2020 World Championships and, more importantly, put an end to the most incredible decider ever seen to make it into the final.
The final frame score stood at 103-83 - an aggregate of 186 points which, unsurprisingly, is a Crucible record.
As if that was not enough drama, O'Sullivan's semi final match against three-time champion Mark Selby - later in the same day - also went into a deciding frame.
The Rocket had done well to get that far having been 13-9 and 16-14 down - and was reduced simply to smacking the cue ball on occasions, most notably when trying to hit a pink nestled behind the black in the 30th frame.
But a brilliant 138 break from O'Sullivan in the next prompted a run of three straight frames to which Selby had no reply - except, that is, for a severe case of sour grapes.
“I just felt like it was obviously a bit disrespectful to me and the game,” Selby said afterwards.
“Obviously if you are playing anybody else, there’s not many players who will get down and just hit them 100 miles per hour when you put them in a snooker.
“Sometimes they will try and work it out, try and play safe or try and get you in trouble back but I just felt he was doing that throughout the match really."
As usual, that was not the only time the Rocket ruffled some feathers in the 17 days in Sheffield.
Earlier, in his post-match interview after beating Ding Junhui in the second round, O'Sullivan claimed he would need to "lose an arm and a leg" to fall out of the top 50.
The comments were condemned by some former and current players including Mark Williams who O'Sullivan went on to beat 13-10 in the quarter finals after trailing 6-2.
But O'Sullivan would have felt justified in his view if he had seen much of a dreadful contest between McGill and Welsh debutant Jamie Clarke.
At one stage, a boxing match seemed more likely to break out than a snooker match with the pair coming close to blows over an accusation by McGill that Clarke was standing in his eyeline.
Clarke, at the time, was 7-2 up and went 8-2 ahead in the frame immediately following the stand-off.
Inadvisably, though, the Llanelli youngster appeared to pile undue pressure on himself by taking to Twitter at the mid-session interval and at the end of the second session, and - coincidentally - he went on to lose to McGill in a decider.
Of course, it would be harsh to judge the quality of these Championships on the basis of a single second round match - and, elsewhere, there was plenty of quality stuff on the baize.
John
Higgins completed a 147 for his first maximum in Sheffield - and the first by anyone in eight years - but
still then lost 13-11 in his second round the match to qualifier Kurt
Maflin.
More annoyingly still for him, the Bristolian went out in the quarter finals against eventual runner-up and sworn enemy Wilson.
Perhaps the final thought in this piece should go out to the legion of snooker fans, of which a limited number eventually got to watch the action live at the venue itself.
Supporters had also been allowed to attend the opening day - a move which led to the withdrawal of asthmatic Anthony Hamilton and met with criticism from O'Sullivan.
But, while that was quickly ended in any case by a change in government guidance, the decision to allow the public back into the Crucible for the final appeared to be managed well and felt justified.
Sadly, it was not a classic - but O'Sullivan will not care a jot - and nor, indeed, will Wilson eventually, if he learns the lessons from his incredible last few days on the baize.
THE PANTHEON OF CHAMPIONS
OPEN ERA (1969-PRESENT)
OPEN ERA (1969-PRESENT)
7 Stephen HENDRY - 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1999
6 Ray REARDON - 1970, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1978
6 Steve DAVIS - 1981, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1988, 1989
6 Ronnie O'SULLIVAN - 2001, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2020
4 John HIGGINS - 1998, 2007, 2009, 2011
3 Mark J WILLIAMS - 2000, 2003, 2018
3 Mark SELBY - 2014, 2016, 2017
3 John SPENCER - 1969, 1971, 1977
2 Alex HIGGINS - 1972, 1982
WORLD SNOOKER CHAMPIONSHIP 2020
THE FULL RESULTS
THE FULL RESULTS
FIRST ROUND
| Seed | (19) | ||||
| [1] | Judd Trump | 10-8 | Tom Ford | ||
| [16] | Yan Bingtao | 10-7 | Elliot Slessor | ||
| [9] | Stephen Maguire | 3-10 | Martin Gould | ||
| [8] | Kyren Wilson | w/o | Anthony Hamilton | ||
| [5] | John Higgins | 10-5 | Matthew Stevens | ||
| [12] | David Gilbert | 8-10 | Kurt Maflin | ||
| [13] | Jack Lisowski | 9-10 | Anthony McGill | ||
| [4] | Mark Allen | 8-10 | Jamie Clarke | ||
| | |||||
| [3] | Mark Williams | 10-5 | Alan McManus | ||
| [14] | Stuart Bingham | 10-7 | Ashley Carty | | |
| [11] | Ding Junhui | 10-9 | Mark King | | |
| [6] | Ronnie O'Sullivan | 10-1 | Thepchaiya Un-Nooh | ||
| [7] | Mark Selby | 10-6 | Jordan Brown | | |
| [10] | Shaun Murphy | 4-10 | Noppon Saengkham | | |
| [15] | Barry Hawkins | 10-2 | Alexander Ursenbacher | | |
| [2] | Neil Robertson | 10-5 | Liang Wenbo | |
| Seed | (25) | ||||
| [1] | Judd Trump | 13-11 | Yan Bingtao | [16] | |
| Martin Gould | 9-13 | Kyren Wilson | [8] | ||
| [5] | John Higgins | 11-13 | Kurt Maflin | ||
| Anthony McGill | 13-12 | Jamie Clarke | |||
| [3] | Mark Williams | 13-11 | Stuart Bingham | [14] | |
| [11] | Ding Junhui | 10-13 | Ronnie O'Sullivan | [6] | |
| [7] | Mark Selby | 13-12 | Noppon Saengkham | ||
| [15] | Barry Hawkins | 9-13 | Neil Robertson | [2] |
| Seed | (25) | ||||
| [1] | Judd Trump | 9-13 | Kyren Wilson | [8] | |
| Kurt Maflin | 10-13 | Anthony McGill | |||
| [3] | Mark Williams | 10-13 | Ronnie O'Sullivan | [6] | |
| [7] | Mark Selby | 13-7 | Neil Robertson | [2] |
SEMI FINALS
| Seed | (33) | ||||
| [8] | Kyren Wilson | 17-16 | Anthony McGill | ||
| [6] | Ronnie O'Sullivan | 17-16 | Mark Selby | [7] |
CENTURIES (79)
147 JOHN HIGGINS
140 Tom Ford, Neil Robertson
140 Tom Ford, Neil Robertson
138 Matthew Stevens, Ronnie O'Sullivan
136 Jamie Clarke, Mark Allen, Anthony McGill
133 Yan Bingtao, Ronnie O'Sullivan
132 Neil Robertson
131 Judd Trump, David Gilbert
130 Yan Bingtao, Mark Williams
129 Martin Gould
127 Judd Trump
125 Ding Junhui
125 Ding Junhui
124 Kurt Maflin, Mark Selby
123 Elliot Slessor
122 Neil Robertson, Mark Allen, Noppon Saengkham, Anthony McGill
120 Mark Selby
119 Ding Junhui, Yan Bingtao, Mark Selby
118 Ashley Carty, Ding Junhui
117 Barry Hawkins, Ronnie O'Sullivan
116 Kyren Wilson (2)
115 Ronnie O'Sullivan, Stuart Bingham
114 Ronnie O'Sullivan
113 Liang Wenbo, Kyren Wilson
112 Ronnie O'Sullivan
111 Mark King, Barry Hawkins
109 Stuart Bingham, Kyren Wilson
107 Jack Lisowski
106 Ronnie O'Sullivan
105 Alan McManus, Kurt Maflin, Mark Allen (2), Noppon Saengkham, Neil Robertson, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Kyren Wilson
104 Judd Trump, Ding Junhui, Mark Allen, Barry Hawkins, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Kyren Wilson
103 Martin Gould (3)
102 David Gilbert, Jack Lisowski, Kurt Maflin, Mark Selby
101 Kurt Maflin, Ronnie O'Sullivan (3), Shaun Murphy, John Higgins, Ding Junhui
100 Martin Gould, Judd Trump, Kyren Wilson (2)
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