Ronnie O’Sullivan’s bid for a record-breaking eighth Crucible title was shattered in Sheffield as John Higgins capped a remarkable comeback with a 13-12 win
Ronnie O’Sullivan was so convinced that John Higgins would expose him he already had a flight home booked. O’Sullivan’s dreams of a record eighth World Championship crashed and burned as Higgins fought back from 9-4 down to eliminate him in a dramatic last-frame decider.
‘The Rocket’ twice led by five frames but lost six in a row across the final two sessions, and Higgins fired three centuries on Monday before holding his nerve to get over the line in the decider and complete a memorable 13-12 win. And after the defeat, O’Sullivan admitted: “I’ve got to be honest with you, I had a flight booked home early this morning because I wasn’t sure if I’d get to the third session before the match started.
“I was realistic about my chances, John’s strong, playing well, won tournaments the last couple of years. I haven’t been in any big matches really for two years. These games, I know it’s a different level.
“It’s alright beating people in the last 64, last 32, whatever, ranked 30th or 40th in the world. But playing the top boys under a real pressure situation, I knew it was going to kind of expose me in some sort of way.
“I was really shocked that I was able to make a game of it, to be honest with you. “Literally, when I was 6-2 up at the first session, I said to my mate: I can’t work this one out. I felt like I played okay. 9-7 up, I thought, okay, cool, two sessions. One you can get a bit flukey.
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“It’s a little bit of new territory for me again, but John played great. I tried to hang on to him. I just couldn’t get the job done. I’ll go back to Ireland, just chill there and then come back whenever I’ve got to play again.”
O’Sullivan let things slide in a six-frame burst over Sunday and Monday when he flopped from 9-4 in front to 10-9 behind. He punched the table in the final frame of the middle session after a miss but said: “I wasn’t even angry. I was quite frustrated. I thought: I missed another bloody important ball. How many of these am I going to keep missing? It was a nice sort of anger.
“In the last round I thought, rather than do the hands, do it with the cue. I missed the tough ball, it was just nice just to go bang. Then within a second, it’s deleted and I’m cool as a cucumber really. I like to just get it out and it’s just done, drawn a line under it, just move forward.”
And while O’Sullivan won’t get an eighth, he hopes Higgins can snare a fifth crown as he said: “I think it’d be nice for him because I always said if you get beat in the quarters, it’s not too bad because you’ve had a good workout, just over a week.
“But if you get beat in the semis or the final here then I’d rather get beat first round because truth be known, no-one really cares who gets beat in the final or the semi-finals.
“If you get to the semis you’ve had to do 15 days, it’s a long old slog. If you get to the final you’ve done 17 days.
“That’s the worst experience for any snooker player, especially something like in a John and mine situation, so it’d be nice for John to go all the way but it’s going to be tough.”
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