Aussie Rules The World of Snooker
Neil Robertson won the £100,000 first prize at the 12Bet.com World Open with a five-frames-to-one victory in the final against Ronnie O’Sullivan at Glasgow’s SECC.
The Australian now dominates professional snooker with the World Open adding to the World Championship he won in May and will find himself atop the latest world rankings when they are released.
Robertson started slowly in the new, shortened format event, a replacement for the old Grand Prix, which he also won in 2009. but got better as the week unfolded.
A scrappy opener last Saturday against Graeme Dott might not have filled him with confidence, but a week is a long time in professional sport.
This weekend, he looked good in the last eight against Ricky Walden and this afternoon, he recovered from 2-0 down to beat the form-man, Mark Williams.
In the final, O’Sullivan looked shaky early on and allowed Robertson to win the opening frame. A century (107) in the second doubled his lead.
Three-time world champion, O’Sullivan won the third with a superb clearance but that was as good as it got for the Rocket as Robertson turned the screws completing a comfortable win.
The result maintains Robertson’s impressive record of six wins from six ranking finals and firmly establishes himself as he man to beat this season.
He also now holds half of the BBC slam, the World Championship and World Open (Grand Prix), with the UK Championship and Masters to follow later in the season. He will be back in Telford in December to try to claim the third leg and try to emulate Williams as the last player to hold all four titles at the same time (2002/3).
