Player of the Month: January: Ronnie O'Sullivan

This is another new feature for the Christmas period where I go back through 2014 month by month looking at who the best players were in each period, before deciding on the Player of the year which will be announced on the 2nd January, after the day by day revealing of the player of the month winners. As with my classic matches the winners have been decided based on my opinions, and to set the scene a player can only win one individual month so there will be 12 different candidates for the player of the year.

Here are my thoughts on January's player of the month:

As the New Year rolled in, so did the prestigious Masters event at the Alexandra Palace which saw the top 16 do battle for the second triple crown event of the 2013/2014 season. One of the men to beat that week was always going to be world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan, but the Rocket was in a mean mood on this particular occasion playing some truly sensational snooker in London. On his way to winning the title, O’Sullivan only lost 7 frames in total, with comfortable victories against Robert Milkins, Ricky Walden, Stephen Maguire and again in the final against Mark Selby. Over the course of the Masters week there wouldn’t have been a player in the world who could have beaten Ronnie and you could say that is some of the best snooker he’s ever played at times, especially in the match against Ricky Walden who did next to nothing wrong in a match where he was whitewashed.

Is Ronnie now entering his prime? His performances in tournaments since this event would suggest so, winning February’s Welsh Open before coming into the 2014/2015 season with a win in Coventry at the Champion of Champions and in York at the UK Championships. As 2014 comes to a close, Ronnie needs only 2 more centuries to equal Stephen Hendry’s centuries record and 3 more to beat it, and you certainly wouldn’t bet against him doing so at the Alexandra Palace in early January as he defends the Masters title he won in such style this year.

The top performances from Ronnie at the Masters have to be against Ricky Walden where he broke the unanswered points record racking up 556 points without reply, but Walden certainly didn’t play badly. Breaks of 79, 88, 72, 134, 77 and 56 were testament to that fact that it was all Ronnie in a match that lasted under an hour of playing time.

The final was the match that really earned him the title of January’s player of the month though as he totally dominated and demolished his great rival Mark Selby. Mark was never in the match in the opening session of the match finding himself 5-0 down early doors as Ronnie managed breaks of 97, 70, 96, 45 and 47 to not entirely shut Mark out, as Selby did have a chance in the fourth frame, but otherwise there was little for the Jester to go at, so he couldn’t really feel to down with himself. Mark was eventually on the board winning the sixth and he had chances in both the seventh and eighth frames but lost them both to trail 7-1 in the final, with Ronnie only needing a further 3 for victory. A break of 90 put O’Sullivan just two away at the start of the evening session at 8-1, though Selby did win himself the next two frames to make it 3-8 with a top break of 67. O’Sullivan went one away by winning the twelfth after had an early chance. Another 67 got Mark a consolation frame in the thirteenth, but the Rocket wrapped up the title and a 10-4 drubbing of Mark Selby thanks to a contribution of 72 in the last.

When he turns up and plays well as he did on this particular week O’Sullivan is unplayable and absolutely dominant, while he honestly believes that the snooker he is playing right now is some of the best snooker of his career, and who are we to argue?

 

Be sure to come back to tomorrow to find out February's player of the month as I reveal the next player in contention for player of the year, which will be announced on January 2nd, so come back for that one as well!