It's time for day 3 of my look back at some of the best moments of the year, and today we go back to March to when a certain Ronnie O'Sullivan won the Welsh Open title in style with his 12th maximum 147 break .
This seems like a long time ago now, but March's moment of the month was pretty much secured when Ronnie O'Sullivan clinched a superb 9-3 win in the final of the Welsh Open against Ding Junhui with one of the better 147 maximum breaks you are likely to see, which was his 12th putting him above the retired 7 times World Champion Stephen Hendry on the all-time 147's list, breaking one of the Scot's many records, and who's to say that Ronnie O'Sullivan couldn't break a few more the way that he's been playing (when he has played) within the last year.
Ronnie stormed through the tournament really, never being tested too much by any player in any round. Many players bottled it at key moments in key frames in matches which could have made things more difficult for Ronnie but this sublime 147 break to clinch the Welsh Open title just underlined the reason why no-one could get close to the Rocket all week in Newport.
Nothing I can really say will do this break any justice at all but there were a lot of brilliant shots in there and I'm going to talk you through them the best that I can the way that I saw them.
The break started off with Ding Junhui leaving Ronnie a red near the left corner pocket, which Ronnie played perfectly to land perfectly on the black, showing the difference between him and other players who may have gone up the table for lower value colours. The second red of the break was also very clever, having played for the red covering the black spot he was then able to play up for the black which was on the blue spot, to get it back on it's own spot straight away. From the 5th black he played a clever screw to knock a few more reds out of the bunch, but doing it with a couple of reds already free eliminated much of the risk from the shot. With the reds now less tightly compacted Ronnie went into them again from the 6th black and with the reds spreading nicely it was clear that the 147 break was well and truly on and the only tough red left was one on the upper right hand side cushion. Even when he finished too straight on the black it was never a problem as he was able to play with a lot of screw and side to get back inch perfect on the next red, showing the genius of his positional play when under a little more pressure. On 72 he finished with the slightest wrong angle on the 10th red and played another very clever shot with screw and side to get back on the black with a nice high angle to play comfortably on the next red. He played another very similar shot on the 14th red having finished a long way the wrong side but he still finished with the perfect angle on the black to get close enough to the tricky last red.
The last red was one of the best shots you may see for a while under the pressure of attempting a maximum playing it left handed with deep screw to get back perfectly on the black to get to the yellow. It should've been easy from there but he just ran out of position, going too far from yellow to green leaving him a slightly trickier positional shot with the rest, but once again he played it perfectly. Even a kick on the blue couldn't stop him potting it and landing on the pink before allowing himself a smile and a little sticking out of the tongue before switching hands and potting the black for one of the better 147's and one of Ronnie O'Sullivan's best as well.
It really was a magical moment and a maximum break that was worthy of March's moment of the month especially to finish off the whole tournament. Who will take the moment of the month for April? Come back tomorrow when all will be revealed.
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