Ronnie O'Sullivan last night claimed the Champion of Champions title for a forth time with a 10-6 victory over Judd Trump.
Ronnie started the stronger & looked to be heading towards an easy win when he extended hid lead to five frames at 6-1.A 147 in the next sparked Judd into life & when in the evening he got back within one at 7-6, it looked like we were in for a dramatic finish. Ronnie however had other ideas & he stretched away again after the mid session interval to seal his second title of the season.
So what did we learn from the tournament as a whole? Well starting with the runner up, after a relatively quiet couple of seasons by his standards, Judd looked to be getting back to his very best here. Strange as it sounds, I think he played a lot better this week than he did last season when he won the title. His victories over Allen & Selby should serve notice that when it comes to deciding the big ones, he's going to be right there in the mix.
Predicting success in sport of course is a dangerous game, but I would be shocked if we don't see Mark Selby back in the winners enclosure sooner rather than later. His personal battles over the last year have been well documented, but he continues to show signs of his game recovering & I just get the feeling that one week with a decent tailwind will see him hold a trophy aloft again.
The enigma that is Fan Zhengyi was the story early in the week. Since he came from nowhere to win the European Masters at the start of the year, he quickly disappeared back there as he struggled to get wins on the board. Coming here he'd only managed two victories all season, but doubled that tally in one day here with two deciding frame wins over Neil Robertson (4-3) & Ryan Day (6-5) He couldn't quite reproduce these heroics in the semi final against Ronnie, but it showed once again that there are some very talented young players on the tour who on their day are a match for anyone, they just need to make it their day on a more consistent basis.
Off the table it was Judd Trump (33) again making the headlines as the self appointed voice of the younger generation. I jest here of course, but to be fair to Judd, it is good to see him with a genuine interest in trying to improve the game. A lot of his ideas over the years I would disagree with, but making a day out at a snooker tournament more of an event off the table, with things taking place in the venue is certainly something that should be looked at. Once you discover what a wonderful game this is you are hooked, the key for me in achieving this is to grow the feel good factor of attending snooker tournaments.
This brings me on to the tournament itself. This is a Matchroom promoted event & as such they can do what they like, but I just feel the presentation here was not fitting for a tournament with the grand title of "Champion of Champions". The Polo shirts (albeit better than last years) still make it look more like a pool tournament, the high sided sponsor screen around the perimeter & the colour scheme made the whole thing on screen seem a bit tacky. The poor attendance until the second half of the week only added to the sense of a tournament taking place in an empty warehouse. As I said above, the secret to our sport growing is properly showing off the one we have, that must not be done by cheapening it.
Anyway on we go to the UK Championship, which is on earlier this year to avoid a clash with the World Cup. Ronnie will go there in search of an eighth UK title & one thing that was shown here again last week was the undeniable fact that, when Ronnie is on it ,there is still no-one who can touch him.
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