O’Sullivan Wins World Seniors Snooker Championship

Ronnie O’Sullivan defeated Joe Perry 10-4 to win the JenningsBet World Seniors Snooker Championship title for the first time.

The seven-times World Professional champion was making his debut at a World Seniors Snooker (WSS) Tour event and swept aside the tournament’s biggest ever field to claim the flagship title at the first attempt.

His campaign began on Friday, when he defeated Ken Doherty (4-1) and Peter Lines (4-2) to reach the semi-finals – where he then overcame his toughest test of the competition to win the last three frames of the contest and defeat Rob Milkins 7-5.

In the title match he faced fellow ‘Class of ’92’ cueist Perry, who had reached this stage by coming from 3-0 behind to beat Craig Steadman 7-5 on Saturday evening.

A sellout Crucible crowd gave O’Sullivan a rapturous ovation for the final and he treated them a mesmerising exhibition of snooker in the early stages as breaks of 103, 131 and 113 gave ‘The Rocket’ a 3-1 advantage at the first mid-session interval.

An 81 break extended O’Sullivan’s lead to 4-1 but Perry showed his fighting qualities to take the sixth after needing a snooker, before reducing his deficit further to just one in the next at 4-3.

The next two frames were shared as ‘The Rocket’ took the all-important last frame of the afternoon, before ‘The Gentleman’ won the first of the evening to make it 5-4.

From here, it was one-way traffic as O’Sullivan secured the next three with help from a contribution of 129 to lead 8-5 at the last mid-session interval. His charge to the finish line showed no signs of slowing after the break and two more frame victories followed to get over the line as a 10-4 winner.

Post-match, O’Sullivan said: “This has been a tough tournament! These guys are experienced competitors so I’ve really had to dig deep and I didn’t expect that I’d have to. It’s been a great week.”

“Joe (Perry) could definitely still compete on the Tour if he wanted to, but he’s enjoying his career doing punditry and everyone loves watching him do what he does there. He’s been a great servant and a great ambassador to the sport” he added.

“I just want to enjoy the game and attack the balls. I’ve not been playing great for three years now and my confidence has been low, but if I can gain some confidence then I’d like to finish my career on a strong note – that’s my ambition.”