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Re: 2014 World Championship final revisited

Postby Cloud Strife

ROS147 wrote:It still hurts to this day. I consider it to be Ronnie’s worst and most significant loss of his career.


Yeah it was a tough one to take. I genuinely believe he would have gone on to equal or surpass Hendry's 7 titles if he had hung on and won that match.

Re: 2014 World Championship final revisited

Postby ROS147

Pink Ball wrote:
ROS147 wrote:It still hurts to this day. I consider it to be Ronnie’s worst and most significant loss of his career.

You poor sod.


I guess I’ll never know how much it hurt to be a Jimmy fan during the 90’s.

Re: 2014 World Championship final revisited

Postby SnookerEd25

Cloud Strife wrote:
ROS147 wrote:It still hurts to this day. I consider it to be Ronnie’s worst and most significant loss of his career.


Yeah it was a tough one to take. I genuinely believe he would have gone on to equal or surpass Hendry's 7 titles if he had hung on and won that match.


Matthew Stevens would have had 8 if he'd beaten Mark Williams in 2000.

I genuinely believe that.

Re: 2014 World Championship final revisited

Postby Dragonfly

Good article. That final set the tone for the following years. While O'Sullivan went on to win numerous other events it's like he lost interest in the Worlds. He wasn't up for long,hard battles against the likes of Selby.

Ever since that match I feel O'Sullivan is the underdog whenever he plays any of the leading players in the Worlds. And while Bingham and Hawkins are very fine players I don't think Ronnie would be losing to them if he had won in 2014. It's like it's left a permanent scar on him and left him very vulnerable.

Re: 2014 World Championship final revisited

Postby SnookerFan

Dragonfly wrote:Good article. That final set the tone for the following years. While O'Sullivan went on to win numerous other events it's like he lost interest in the Worlds. He wasn't up for long,hard battles against the likes of Selby.

Ever since that match I feel O'Sullivan is the underdog whenever he plays any of the leading players in the Worlds. And while Bingham and Hawkins are very fine players I don't think Ronnie would be losing to them if he had won in 2014. It's like it's left a permanent scar on him and left him very vulnerable.


Is he an underdog on Friday against Ding?

Re: 2014 World Championship final revisited

Postby Jamesc1101

Thanks for the positive words! He looks to have enjoyed the less pressured environment in the first round. Maybe he’s fancying another run.

Agree on Stevens too, his ability warrants a WC and at 42, maybe it’s not over yet. He could have beat Higgins, a few poor shot choices let him down.

Re: 2014 World Championship final revisited

Postby Dragonfly

SnookerFan wrote:
Dragonfly wrote:Good article. That final set the tone for the following years. While O'Sullivan went on to win numerous other events it's like he lost interest in the Worlds. He wasn't up for long,hard battles against the likes of Selby.

Ever since that match I feel O'Sullivan is the underdog whenever he plays any of the leading players in the Worlds. And while Bingham and Hawkins are very fine players I don't think Ronnie would be losing to them if he had won in 2014. It's like it's left a permanent scar on him and left him very vulnerable.


Is he an underdog on Friday against Ding?


Ding wasn't at all convincing against King. But I wouldn't be any way certain that O'Sullivan can beat him.

Re: 2014 World Championship final revisited

Postby Dan-cat

Dragonfly wrote:Good article. That final set the tone for the following years. While O'Sullivan went on to win numerous other events it's like he lost interest in the Worlds. He wasn't up for long,hard battles against the likes of Selby.

Ever since that match I feel O'Sullivan is the underdog whenever he plays any of the leading players in the Worlds. And while Bingham and Hawkins are very fine players I don't think Ronnie would be losing to them if he had won in 2014. It's like it's left a permanent scar on him and left him very vulnerable.


Agreed, but a great champion can overturn this mental block.

Re: 2014 World Championship final revisited

Postby ROS147

I think that when he reached the final in 2014 Ronnie had built up an air of almost invincibility around him at the Crucible. He’d made the final for the third consecutive year, winning two matches with sessions to spare, and looking like he would take his third title in a row. There was a real chance that he was going to establish a Hendry-esque dominance of the World Championship. I think that defeat not only broke Ronnie, but it made the other players realise that he could be beaten at the Crucible.

Re: 2014 World Championship final revisited

Postby Andre147

Cloud Strife wrote:
ROS147 wrote:It still hurts to this day. I consider it to be Ronnie’s worst and most significant loss of his career.


Yeah it was a tough one to take. I genuinely believe he would have gone on to equal or surpass Hendry's 7 titles if he had hung on and won that match.


No doubt.

I think he should have carried on playing like he did until 10-5, free flowing, not allowing Selby's game to creep in. Easier said than done.

And more important the missed pink, was the missed black off its spot at 10-5 when he was cruising. The pink the damage was more than done in that session, losing all but one frame, so even if he won that frame Selby would still find a way to win in the evening.

However, the missed black at 10-5 had much more impact, could have easily been 11-5 and even 12-5 up. Surely Ronnie couldn't have lost from that position? All in the past, but that's for me the main turning point in the match.

Re: 2014 World Championship final revisited

Postby ROS147

Yes people always point to that missed pink at 11-11 as the big turning point, when it was definitely the missed black at 10-5 that turned the tide in the match. If Ronnie won that frame, and the last of the session to have a 12-5 lead, there’s no way he would have lost from there.

Re: 2014 World Championship final revisited

Postby shanew48

'That pink' that Ronnie missed in the final frame of the 3rd session which made the score 13-12 to Ronnie as opposed to 14-11! did he think he needed the black as well? which is why he hit it with so much pace? all the interviews with chummy people he has had since then and nobody has ever asked him about that pink!

Every time I watch the shot I still think he is going to pot it, I think most of us on here even under the circumstances of a WC final, if we knew that we just needed to pot the pink so just a matter of rolling the pink in the middle, I think most of us would pot it, it really was that straightforward!

Anyway that was the turning point and gave selby the impetus to be able to employ all of his bad sportsmanlike tactics even more intensely from that point on wards.

It was a real shame, as it really brought selby to the fore even more so as he realised even more that he could use his unsportsmanlike tactics all around the world against everyone which he then did for years and still try's to these days but it's not as effective against the top players as he is in decline as a a top player which is good for the future of the sport.