Tuesday 8 May 2012

RONNIE BACK TO HIS BEST.

When Ronnie O'Sullivan potted his final ball to win this year's world snooker championship, it all seemed to have an air of inevitability about it.

O'Sullivan is, without doubt, a genius with the cue and possibly the best, or at least one of the best 2 or 3, who have ever played the game. This year he played throughout with a level of control and determination that he has rarely shown before and there really was never much doubt about who would win the coveted title once he'd disposed of Neil Robertson in the quarter final.

His opponent in the final, Ali Carter, had also reached that stage by showing enormous strength of character and well deserved his place there. Sadly, he was unable to reproduce his best form of the earlier rounds and he almost collapsed entirely in the first part of the third seesion when O'Sullivan stretched a decent lead of 10-7 to a virtually uncatchable one of 14-7. Although he subsequently tried to fight back, it was all in vain and O'Sullivan was a comfortable winner by 18 frames to 11.

For the future, O'Sullivan, as several times before, has already made veiled threats of imminent retirement and the game has already lost Steven Hendry who announced his own retirement after his thrashing at the hands of Stephen Maguire; Carter may still be considering his own future in the game given his on-going health problems, although perhaps his showing this year may tempt him to play on. Maguire and Selby don't seem to have quite what it takes and Higgins is probably now past his best; next year's title may well be between Robertson and Trump, if the latter can gain more maturity of approach, though this year's 'new boy' Jamie Jones, may play a part. And there's always Ronnie, if he turns up.