Ronnie O'Sullivan Captures Welsh Open in Style

Ronnie O'Sullivan wins the Welsh open for a third time
by beating Ding Junhui. Image: Monique Limbos

Ronnie O’Sullivan produced arguably the best snooker of his entire career as he scooped the 2014 Welsh Open title, with a phenomenal 147 break. The Rocket had been on fire all week and capped off Newport’s final staging of the event with a moment to remember with a maximum in the final frame to be played at the Newport Centre.

It was O’Sullivan’s first 147 since 2011 but crucially upped his maximum tally to 12, succeeding the record he’d shared with Stephen Hendry, both locked on 11. After clearing the first fourteen reds and black, he was left with the final red close to the right hand rail near to the yellow pocket. However, he played a terrific left-handed screw-back to finish plum on the black before clearing the colours causing rapturous scenes at the Newport Centre to round of a 9-3 win.

O’Sullivan’s damage was caused in the first session as he took a commanding 7-1 lead into the evening’s concluding session. Ding missed a good opportunity to take the opener which Ronnie subsequently nicked before adding the next two with breaks of 91 and 70. Ding pulled one back on the colours to trail 3-1 at the interval but he was not at his usual clinical best and was not winning frames when he got the chance. O’Sullivan took the next four, including a break of 92 in the sixth, to head into the evening just two frames from victory.

Ding fought admirably in the early stages of the second session, with runs of 109 and 121 to close to 7-3 but there was no real danger of a real fight-back, with Ronnie dominating the 11th before compiling the fantastic maximum in the 12th to complete the victory.

He takes home the £60,000 winner’s prize plus the £10,000 rolling maximum prize and the £2,000 tournament high break prize whilst Ding’s search for a record-equalling fifth ranking title of the season continues, with four events left.

Last 16 Results
Stephen Maguire 3-4 Joel Walker
Scott Donaldson 0-4 Ding Junhui
Stuart Bingham 3-4 Joe Perry
Ali Carter 1-4 Mark Selby
Mark Williams 2-4 Marco Fu
Liang Wenbo 2-4 Barry Hawkins
Judd Trump 3-4 John Higgins
Ricky Walden 1-4 Ronnie O’Sullivan

Quarter-Final Results
Joel Walker 4-5 Ding Junhui
Joe Perry 5-1 Mark Selby
Marco Fu 0-5 Barry Hawkins
John Higgins 1-5 Ronnie O’Sullivan

Semi-Final Results
Ding Junhui 6-4 Joe Perry
Barry Hawkins 2-6 Ronnie O’Sullivan

Snooker action continues on Monday with the final group of Championship League snooker, with the Dongguan Open Asian Tour event taking place in China from Tuesday to Saturday.