Ronnie O’Sullivan has reached his 14th Masters final, beating Shaun Murphy 6-2 in the process. O’Sullivan is now in a good position to claim a record-extending eighth title having taken the first two frames and the fourth to lead 3-1. Murphy then put together an impressive 131 break before another century brought him within a frame of his opponent, but O’Sullivan then hit back with runs of 90, 71 and 62 to seal his victory.
O’Sullivan will now face either Mark Allen or Ali Carter in Sunday’s final. He has his eyes fixed on the £250,000 top prize, which he was absent from for five years after his UK Championship win in December. O’Sullivan, who first won the tournament nearly 29 years ago, could become not only its oldest winner but the oldest winner of all three of snooker’s most prestigious events. Stuart Bingham, the current record-holder, won his only Masters title aged 43 in 2020.
O’Sullivan appears to have a psychological edge over his opponents, with an aura that places pressure on them. However, Murphy had several good opportunities that he was unable to capitalise on. He faltered on the green in the opener, missed a black off its spot when among the balls in the second frame, and played a loose safety shot in the fourth to hand his opponent a two-frame advantage at the mid-session interval. After the match, Murphy said: “I missed a couple of shots here and there, but it felt like I played better in that match than in the previous two. I just thought Ronnie was superb, and if he plays like that, you may as well give him the trophy now.”
O’Sullivan said of his own performance: “At the start, there were a few mistakes, but I cleaned it up a little bit – and I need to do that these days because I can’t pot as well as these guys, but I can make breaks among the balls and make up for it that way. I don’t feel that old. I feel young in my mind. I feel a lot younger round the table when I play these younger players. They look old and their brains are quite slow. I still feel my brain is pretty quick round the snooker table, which is enough.”
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