Ronnie O’Sullivan and Judd Trump had been going along
fantastically throughout the UK Championship in December 2014, and in this final
Ronnie was in first with a fantastic long red early on. Having made 14 he went
into the pack from the blue, but missed the blue to leave Judd his first
opening of the match. With pink and black pushed safe early in the break it
wasn’t easy to win the frame in one visit but he managed to build a 30 point
lead with a run of 44 with the final three reds on the bottom cushion. A fantastic
long straight red after the safety battle from O’Sullivan gave him a chance to
clear, before he missed the final red down the cushion. A good snooker,
followed by a wild escape from Trump gave Ronnie a second chance and he dished
to take the opening frame.
In the second frame, Trump was in first and was soon into
his scoring stride. However, a tricky pink was missed on the fair jaw on 37
which left O’Sullivan right in. The attempted pack opener on 32 left him on
nothing though and he was forced to play safe. A fantastic long pot again from
Trump gave him the chance with the remaining reds open to square the match up
and with a few exhibition shots to finish he took the frame for 1-1. The long
potting from both was fantastic and on display again from O’Sullivan in frame
three as he made another and was soon in great break building form and made a
sublime 82 to lead 2-1. A very fine long cut from Trump sent the opening break
building opportunity his way. A bad miss possibly caused by a kick left the opening
for Ronnie, but the misses continued when he missed a red on the stretch. After
some safety and slightly more scrappy play, yet another long pot gave Ronnie. A
nice 41 was enough to put him 3-1 in front at the mid-session interval.
Ronnie kept his 100% long pot success after the break. A
miss to the middle didn’t end up costing him as Judd’s chance amounted to
little and another long red got Ronnie in and a plant helped him seal the frame
and he finished up with an 81 clearance to move even further ahead at 4-1. A
very lacklustre safety from Judd allowed the Rocket in yet again. However,
Trump was let off when Ronnie missed a tricky red from middle distance on 33. When
his best chance came a little while afterwards. A mistake on a red to the
middle leading by just 8 with 43 remaining opened the door once again for
Ronnie. A superb shot to knock the last red off of the cushion and perfectly
over the middle. This allowed the clearance that put him in a very commanding
position, leading 5-1 in the first session with two frames remaining and now
guaranteed an end of session advantage.
Judd needed to respond and pick up his form, and a long pot
early in frame six allowed him to do so until an early miss handed the chance
over to O’Sullivan. Awkward bridging caused him to return the favour but the
frame became littered by mistakes when Judd missed an easy black straight
after. With the black over a corner pocket, a long bout of safety ensued. This
ended after a storming long shot from the 2011 York champion. A break of 46
meant he left Ronnie needing snookers but there was nothing he could eventually
do in stopping Trump from getting a frame back at 2-5. The final frame looked
like an important one and one that Judd certainly needed to win. An early 39
gave him a great starting point. A careless in-off from Trump left Ronnie a
chance at a long pot, giving him the opportunity to close the gap up in the
frame but a careless miss on the penultimate red soon ended that chance,
leaving him 33 behind with 43 possibly available. Trump gave away many foul
points from a snooker on the final red which meant that when Ronnie potted down
to the green he was only trailing Trump by six points. Trump’s chance came and
some good pots on green, brown and particularly frame ball blue to close the
gap and only trail 5-3 at the end of the first session.
When Trump was in first at the start of the evening session,
but a missed cut after six reds and blacks allowed O’Sullivan to answer his
opponents incomplete start. He only managed a single point though before
missing an attempted black to the middle by a large margin. Judd looked a
little nervy and his next shot left another opening for the Rocket. A careless
missed blue going into the pack of four reds squandered the opportunity, but a
long pot shortly after handed him another. The reds were split and colours on
their spots other than the black which Ronnie didn’t require to move further in
front and take a crucial frame at 6-3. Judd was in first again in the tenth,
hoping he could win a frame in one visit for the first time in the match. By
the time he lost position on a colour on 56 the job was still incomplete with 6
reds left on the table. Ronnie’s long potting was still holding together
fantastically, but a missed range red from Trump allowed O’Sullivan a chance to
steal this frame too. He failed to get on the last red and was still 20 behind
but when Judd quickly left the red over a pocket he was presented the second go
that he needed to take the frame from a way behind again. A great screw shot on
the blue brought the pink off of the cushion but he still had to go around the
table for black ball position but played it perfectly to clear and make it 7-3.
Judd continued to attack and with the first scoring visit of frame eleven falling
to him he had to take advantage. Once again he built a decent lead but it
wasn’t good enough when he missed a tricky red on 49. A further couple of reds
and a green put him 54 points ahead but with 59 remaining there was still hope
for Ronnie if he could earn a counter attacking chance. It wasn’t to be though
and Judd eventually edged his way over the winning line but it was hardly
convincing and O’Sullivan was still 7-4 ahead with one to go before the
mid-session break. A nice long red from Ronnie led to a continuation of his
dominance when he won the twelfth in one visit with a magnificent 133 total
clearance steering him further clear at 8-4.
When Ronnie earned the first scoring opening after the
interval and was working hard with the black out of play but he was going along
nicely until he went for a very risky plant which didn’t fall and left a red
over the middle for Judd to counter O’Sullivan’s 54. He managed 30 in return
but had to play safe after failing to split the last two reds away from the
black and into a potable area. Judd earned the next chance after fluking the
red he narrowly missed a long attempt on. He missed the blue however and left a
tough pot to the middle for Ronnie on the final red, but he rolled it in and
was able to do enough to put himself one away from the title now at 9-4.
If Trump was going to forge a comeback from here he would
need to do something special and win most frames in one visit. That still
wasn’t happening in frame fourteen when a missed brown halted him with only a
43 point lead amassed. Ronnie’s 5 in response was basically non-existent in the
importance of the frame as a miss to the right middle let Judd off of the hook.
From this point on, the frame became pretty lacklustre. Both players had
chances but were not clinical enough. After potting the penultimate red Trump
was leading by 17 but with a possible 35 points still left on the table and
when the next chance came he was able to finally kill the frame off and halt
Ronnie’s celebrations but still a way behind at 5-9. In the fifteenth, Ronnie
totally miss judged his simple roll into the pack off of one cushion, leaving
Judd an early visit in which to at least get a decent start in the frame. Once
into the pack, and with a nice split on the reds the foundations had been laid
for a much more sizeable contribution this time. That contribution came in the
shape of a 120 break to further extend the match and put a few early doubts in
O’Sullivan’s mind at 6-9.
Those doubts would have started growing when Judd got in
first again in the sixteenth with plenty to go at once more. A kick on 61 left
him a tough black but once that went in and he landed perfectly on the next red
the frame was sealed, as the Juddernaut went on to make consecutive centuries
for good measure with a 127 making it 9-7 little over 20 minutes after it had
been 9-5 to Ronnie. When a missed red stayed by the baulk pocket at the start
of frame seventeen Judd was back in once again and in dangerous territory for
O’Sullivan. Before long it was another frame over as a quick fire 86 drew Trump
to within a single frame of his idol now at 8-9. The first miss in live play
for a few frames from Judd came as he missed a long red in frame eighteen and
the red came around the table to leave an easy chance for the Rocket. It was a
decent chance to build a commanding lead and one he would have hoped to turn
into a winning one within a few minutes. His contribution only amounted to 21
when he missed an easy black off of the spot. Luckily he didn’t leave a red on
and was able to roll a superb red in shortly after to switch back into the
scoring zone. It was soon worked into a fantastic chance to seal the match and
take the title, but a very poor positional shot forced him to play safe just a
couple of balls from the winning line leading the frame by 59 with 75
remaining. A sorry safety shot from O’Sullivan just afterwards left Judd with a
mid-range pot to start a counter attack. Once that was knocked in the only
stumbling block could have been the red on the side cushion, but it was the
perfect side for a left hander and he made it look simple, along with the rest
of the 67 to clear and make it five frames on the trot out of nowhere in terms
of how the match had been played out early on, but now both players had to get
themselves together for a deciding frame.
At the start of the nineteenth, Ronnie earned the first
scoring opportunity as he was just able to wobble in a red from long distance.
On 15 he hammered in a thin cut on a red around the table but landing on the
side cushion he couldn’t take on a colour and had to play safe. Judd’s chance
came when he dropped a long red in, followed by a high pressure pink to the
middle. He too lost position early though, and had to play safe on 14 with only
six points in the frame. A fantastic snooker behind the green from Ronnie left
Judd struggling for an escape shot, and when he left the cue ball in the middle
of the reds, it did leave one on and that left O’Sullivan a golden chance. When
frame ball went in he allowed himself a couple of fist pumps as an emotional
release and the job was done. Ronnie O’Sullivan had sealed the match beating
Judd Trump 10-9, and it was nice to see Judd warmly congratulate Ronnie with a
hug at the end of the match. For Judd to come back out of nowhere but still see
Ronnie hold it together at the end was superb snooker from both players and
more than worthy of the classic match tag that it has been given.
Be sure to return tomorrow when we enter the top 4 on the countdown.
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