Ronnie O'Sullivan stormed to the group 1 victory on day 3 of the Champion of Champions with a whitewash of Hong Kong's Marco Fu in the group final 6-0. Earlier in the day Ronnie produced some sublime snooker when he was under pressure against Stuart Bingham, winning that group semi-final 4-2. The standard wasn't fantastic that was produced in the other group semi by Marco Fu and Shaun Murphy with both players missing some quite easy balls and struggling really to get going, especially Murphy, while Fu dug in as he always does when he's struggling to win that one 4-1.
Group Semi-Finals:
Ronnie O'Sullivan 4-2 Stuart Bingham - The standard produced in this one was fantastic with a 50+ break winning every frame with 3 centuries in the match, which is always good going for a best-of-7. The match started off well as he dominated the first frame with a break of 60 to lead 1-0. Stuart fought back nicely with a break of 107 in the second frame to level the match at 1-1 before a break of 62 in a frame where both players had chances was enough to see him over the line to a 2-1 lead. At this stage Stuart must've fancied his chances of winning the game big time, but with the Rocket you never know what's coming next, although you can usually speculate that it will be a huge response. From getting into a 2-1 lead Stuart went on to score one more point in the match, as O'Sullivan levelled the match with a break of 83, before taking the lead with a 115 in the fifth. He then made it consecutive centuries to kill off the match as a break of 103 saw him over the line and into the group final with a 4-2 victory that was very well earned.
Marco Fu 4-1 Shaun Murphy - The only thing to say about this match is that it was a big struggle for both players, certainly to start with that is, as the players reminded us fans and bloggers how hard the game is missing balls that you certainly wouldn't expect players in the top 10 in the world to be missing. The first frame was scrappy but Murphy made a 50 break on the way to winning it and taking a 1-0 lead. The next frame was scrappy again with both players having chances, Fu first but he missed a simple ball to the middle when well in, but Murphy did the same thing with the pink a few shots later and Fu didn't need a second invitation to seize and take the frame. This was pretty much the theme for the rest of the match with Fu getting the early chances but Murphy not being able to seize when his came along and letting Fu back in, just as he did in frame three with Fu taking a 2-1 lead. After an early chance from Murphy didn't amount to anything, Fu was on a break of 56 when he threw in an elementary miss on a straight red that happened to be frame ball, but Murphy missed immediately to let Marco back in to take a 3-1 lead. Shaun had an early chance in frame five as well from a good long pot, but he could only make 15 before going into the reds and not landing nicely on a colour, taking on a risky blue with awkward cueing, but when he missed it was Marco's match for the taking and this time he took it without much drama as a break of 80 sent him into the final a 4-1 winner.
Group Final:
Ronnie O'Sullivan 6-0 Marco Fu - Marco Fu knew that he had to improve if he was going to have any chance of beating O'Sullivan in this match, but unfortunately for Marco he couldn't improve to any sort of required amount and when you're playing Ronnie he will smell weakness a mile off and pounce all over it. The match started off without Marco potting a ball in the opening two frames as breaks of 75 and 71 put O'Sullivan 2-0 up. Marco had an early chance in frame three but he couldn't make anything of it which was probably a product of being shut out of the opening couple of frames, as a break of 62 put O'Sullivan 3-0 up in very quick time. The fourth frame was huge in the context of the match as Marco had enormous chances to win it, but it was O'Sullivan that took it on the black after earlier breaks of 45 from Fu and 61 from Ronnie. At 4-0 you certainly felt there was no way back for O'Sullivan and that 3-1 probably would've been too big a deficit for Marco but at least he'd have had a half chance. In the next frame Ronnie needed a couple of chances but a later break of 60 was enough to put him 5-0 ahead and one away from a semi-final meeting with Ding Junhui. The Rocket fired home on bonfire night (when fireworks could actually be heard loud and clear in the arena) with a display that ended up being a whitewash with the sixth frame going his way as well after Fu missed his own chances and couldn't get into the match at all which was a bit tough to watch really, just as the earlier group semi-final was. It always looked like being O'Sullivan's day in the end.
It wasn't the most entertaining day of snooker and Ronnie stormed home to victory in the end putting him in a semi-final with Ding Junhui on Saturday. There's one more group to come tomorrow (today being a rest day) and then we're on to the semi-finals on Saturday. Should be a good climax to the week.
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