Beating the BBC

O’Sullivan wins Masters title

The most natural player the game of snooker has ever seen, Ronnie O’Sullivan, took the Masters title after an enthralling final at Wembley Arena, which the Londoner won 10-8.

Incredibly, O’Sullivan won the tournament with a cue he had only been playing with for a week or so. The world number one and defending world champion described it as the high point of an amazing career.

He said: “That’s the best achievement I’ve ever done in snooker. I’m just pleased to have come out on top and I love it!”

Defending champion Selby battled hard but missed his chances in crucial frames, and O’Sullivan’s grit and determination saw him through with a half-century in the deciding frame.

With the scores tied at 8-8 the Leicester potter missed a brown to take him out of reach and one frame from the title. The Rocket potted the remaining balls to take the frame and after a tight opening did enough with his chance around the balls to take the match in the eighteenth.

Selby led 7-5 at one stage but O’Sullivan fought back to take the next three frames with breaks of 69, 70 and 110.

From there O’Sullivan was always favourite in front of a raucous home crowd, and he closed out the match to add a fourth Masters title to an already glittering list of honours.

[Hilariously, I managed to break this story before the BBC. Sat at home watching the coverage on television, I had most of it written before the end. I held editing privileges for InJournalism at the time so got it checked quickly by a friend and self-published. It was originally published here.]