O'Sullivan wins World crown

[Salem6]

By Clive Jones and Dan Warren
BBC Sport at The Crucible



Ronnie O'Sullivan romped to a second world title after a convincing 18-8 win over Graeme Dott.

Resuming 16-8 ahead after the Monday afternoon session, "The Rocket" needed just 20 minutes in the evening to take the two frames he needed for the win.

The damage was done in an afternoon session in which O'Sullivan won seven of the eight frames - punctuated only by a 106 from Dott, the Scot's second ton of the tournament.

Breaks of 92 in the first of the evening, and 33 in a scrappy second were enough to finish the inevitable win and give O'Sullivan another world crown.

The 18-8 scoreline was all the more incredible given that Dott had won the first five frames of the match.

At that stage, there was talk of the biggest upset since Joe Johnson's win over Steve Davis in 1986.

But O'Sullivan fired in a 100 break to get off the mark and took the next three to close the deficit to just one.

Dott was still playing well and was very much in the game at 7-7, but afterwards O'Sullivan began to pull clear.

He finished Sunday's play 9-7 ahead and by the end of Monday afternoon's session, Dott knew the game was up with the Rocket two away from the win.

O'Sullivan was focused and ruthless, and even the appearance of a streaker at the start of the evening session could not distract him.

The final two frames were won quickly as O'Sullivan completed the most convincing win in a final since Stephen Hendry's 18-5 win over Jimmy White in 1993.




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Final score:

R O'Sullivan (Eng) 18-8 G Dott (Sco)
34-71 (71) 9-77 (77) 0-108 (64) 0-97 0-61 (60) 100-0 (100) 63-17 87-0 (63), 87-0 (56), 0-59, 64-47, 78-0 (78), 0-87 (86), 68-48 (56), 68-1, 69-0, 71-1, 85-0, 2-119 (106), 76-30 (65), 85-43 (85), 69-8 (62), 91-44, 72-13 (61) 92-8 (92), 88-16



Video:-

Ronnie O'Sullivan
"I'm going to enjoy it"
news.bbc.co.uk/media/video/40110000/rm/_40110761_sport_osullivan_vi.ram

Graeme Dott
"Ronnie is phenomenally good"
news.bbc.co.uk/media/video/40110000/rm/_40110765_sport_dott_vi.ram

news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/snooker/3681217.stm

[Salem6]

By Clive Jones
BBC Sport at The Crucible



Ronnie O'Sullivan says he thinks the world has still not seen the best of him despite his dominant performance in winning this year's World Snooker Championship.

"I believe I can get better and keep on improving, not just in snooker, but in every area of my life," he said.

"It was a good performance and in the last three matches I've been feeling pretty comfortable.

"But you have to give Graeme credit. I knew it wasn't going to be a one-sided final, no matter what people said.

"He beat John Higgins and Matthew Stevens to get to the final. They are great players and Graeme is, too."

An emotional O'Sullivan dedicated his win to his father, who is serving a jail sentence.

"This one is for him," he said after the match.

"I got quite emotional throughout the match and I thought of him watching me on the television.

"He will be sitting in his cell tonight feeling chuffed to bits."

O'Sullivan paid the greatest tribute to his new mentor Ray Reardon.


The six-times former champion and O'Sullivan have struck up a close friendship since Reardon started giving The Rocket advice over his game.

"My appetite for the game is back and you can see that from the scoreline in some of the matches.

"My thanks goes to Ray. He has had an impact. I'm more excited about working with him than winning the title."

O'Sullivan said he felt good about his prospects even before the tournament began.

"I always felt in my mind that I would come here and win it," he said.

"Of course, there were some doubts over the 17 days, but you wouldn't be human if you did not have them."