Ronnie wins a Classic
Ronnie O'Sullivan and Mark Williams dished up a feast of snooker in their semi final of the 2010 Pokerstars.com Masters
It was such a high quality match that it was a shame it had to end and very sad that there had to be a loser.
But loser there was and in the end it was Williams.
A drama packed final frame decider hinged on missed chances and Williams missed his vital chance and O'Sullivan took his.
The defending champion opened the frame with 30 but was then desperately unlucky, as he split the pack off the pink, only to see two reds disappear into the corner pockets.
Ronnie said "I was so disappointed to knock in those reds. If I'd lost from there I would have been gutted."
That gave Williams his chance and he made 32 before totally underhitting his positional shot and instead of being left on a choice of reds was faced with trying to bend a red dead weight to the centre pocket. It stayed out.
O'Sullivan added another 32 to leave Williams needing snookers, which he failed to do. The 1000 plus audience gave the players a standing ovation and the two contestants embraced warmly and left the arena chatting over what had been and what might have been.
O'Sullivan was ecstatic with his win. "It's nice to be playing snooker again", he said.
"I was willing the balls in. I don't know how I was still in the game.
"Mark has struggled with his game for a while but to see him cueing like that he'll be winning events again soon."
"I was trying my nuts off!"
The match started in great style and continued in that vein throughout. Williams slotted home a long red and made 107 from it to take the opener.
He added the second after O'Sullivan missed three scoring chances. O'Sullivan did lay one brilliant snooker tight behind the black but Williams' escape would have done Hoodini justice!
In the third Williams opened with 36 but missed a thin red to the centre. He got away with that but didn't get away with missing the reds completely on a safety shot and O'Sullivan stepped in with 86.
It was level at the interval as O'Sullivan cracked in 99 after a poor break off by Williams.
O'Sullivan took the lead for the first time in the fifth after Williams missed a long red attempt and O'Sullivan's 39 break put the frame out of the Welshman's reach.
By now O'Sullivan was looking extremely dangerous and the response from Williams was to smash in 132 to level the match.
He did have a chance at 145 to set a new high break mark but missed the pink.
A run of 60 gave O'Sullivan the seventh frame, but Williams immediately countered with 78 to bring them level at 4-4.
In the ninth O'Sullivan left a red on, Williams potted it and ran in 96.
Maybe Williams tried to force the pace in the tenth frame, wanting to take any chance to win the match. He missed a very hard red down the rail with the rest and O'Sullivan made 67 to send the match into the dramatic decider.
After the match Williams said: "I played well, I can't grumble and say anything other than I played well, he played well.
"I made some great breaks but it all came down to the last frame and I missed a tricky red to the green pocket. I knew if I got it I couldn't fail to win but if I missed I couldn't fail to lose.
"I couldn't really play much better than that, I didn't miss many pots and my safety was good."
Ronnie O'Sullivan now awaits the winner of the second semi final between Stephen Maguire and Mark Selby. Of course it was Selby he beat in last year's final.
