Ronnie was at his imperious snookering best throughout the entire week at Alexandra Palace, dropping only 7 frames on his way to a fifth Masters title.
Robert Milkins was first to the sword (6-1), before Ricky Walden caught the perfect storm performance in the quarter final (6-0). Indeed, it’s hard not to think that the Walden whitewash didn’t also persuade Stephen Maguire to give up hope as soon as he fell behind in the semi final (6-2) and even put Mark Selby himself under immense pressure before the first ball was struck in this final.
There were still chances offered to Selby in the first session, but his characteristic grit and determination seemed to have given way to fear and doubt. The two areas where Selby has traditionally held the edge over Ronnie have been temperament and safety play. The advent of Steve Peters as Ronnie’s sports psych mentor seems to have put paid to the first of those, and perhaps it was the pressure of trying to prove he could live with an on-song Ronnie that stripped Mark of the other on this occasion.
| Mark Selby | 4 – 10 | Ronnie O’Sullivan |
|---|---|---|
| 85% | Pots | 90% |
| (153/179) | (273/305) | |
| [18/33] | Long | [17/33] |
| 84% | Posn | 91% |
| (127/151) | (244/269) | |
| 77% | Safe | 81% |
| (47/61) | (46/57) | |
| 24s | Shot Time | 18s |
| 46% | Table Time | 54% |
| Frames | ||
| 0-97 9:52 | 97(    ) | |
| () 14 | 14-70 9:25 | 70( ) |
| 0-102 11:36 | 6(), 96( ) | |
| () 7, (  ) 20, ( ) 14, ( ) 2 | 43-72 26:24 | 5(), 45( ), 18(  ) |
| () 6, ( ) 3 | 9-84 15:55 | 37(), 47( ) |
| () 36, ( ) 1, ( ) 27 | 64-53 13:43 | 53() |
| () 11, ( ) 1, ( ) 37 | 56-63 23:00 | 12(), 9( ), 35( ), 7( ) |
| () 25, ( ) 1, ( ) 7 | 37-71 19:03 | 36(), 35( ) |
| 0-91 9:23 | 1(), 90( ) | |
| () 36, ( ) 20, ( ) 7 | 63-61 12:35 | 41(), 20( ) |
| () 67 | 67-27 14:06 | 1(), 26( ) |
| () 23 | 23-60 18:38 | 30(), 24( ), 1( ), 2( ), 3( ) |
| () 1, ( ) 8, ( ) 67 | 76-0 15:06 | |
| () 17, ( ) 8 | 25-80 16:21 | 72(), 8( ) |
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