Re: WAR IS OVER! RONNIE O'SULLIVAN IS THE GOAT!
Holden Chinaski wrote:badtemperedcyril wrote: The idea of being a great match player is to have the ability to dictate the tempo to suit yourself, depending on the state of play. .
And this why Ronnie decided to play those 'hit and hope' shots when Selby tried to dictate the tempo with the safety play. It was Ronnie refusing to play Selby's game, and proving afterwards that he's so good he doesn't even have to take Selby serious when he's trying to slow things down. It was a great tactic from Ronnie. This is why Selby looked so gutted after that match. He got outsmarted and outplayed by Ronnie, and even humiliated a bit. Selby has often got into Ronnie's head, but that time Ronnie turned things around and played flawless snooker to win the match.
I like this answer, probably biased here. I am pro China there seems fate pro Chinaski
Anyway not quite flawless lol, that last red on a break of 64 didn't go in! Had it gone in no need for a nervy safety battle though actually it was so fitting Selby lost to Ronnie due to his safety! I've rewatched it many times & everytime I keep looking for better positional play or shot selection so he didn't have to go for that long, missable red. Had that cost him the match with him on the cusp on a most incredible comeback it would be more painful than 2014 by a lot. Rewatching frame 30 where Ronnie hit the ball at lightspeed it did look like he could have stole that frame had he the patience but it was a calculated risk just letting it go.... Had he spent 30m+ trying to snooker Selby he'd likely be too knackered to take 2.5frames so quickly. (Which he won probably quicker than had he played on in frame 30 to his best ability)
Even light cannot escape blackholes but the Rocket engaged FTL engines those last 3frames!
Oh yes Selby's twitching mouth was a picture! (Rewatched a little of the longest frame vs Yan, lol his face) I'd have felt sorry for him if not for his classless postmatch interview accusing Ronnie of being disrespectful! Muck Sourby.
But objectively yes Selby does have a good A game & I'm sure he prefers to play with that if it's there rather than grind & again I didn't watch 2016's UK final but it had high breaks so sounds like he outplayed Ronnie rather than dragged it out. He hasn't got natural ability by his own admission and coupled with his late father telling him to never give up it makes the monster that he is in scrapping, as Davis said last year's final he's like a vampire! Sucked the life out of Murphy!
Got to hand it to Ronnie for somehow always finding a way to get back on top, Hendry was the old king then it became Higgins & Willo his biggest threats, then Robbo & Selby (Paul Hunter too before them), even Murphy beat Ronnie in a big final (Champ of champs 2017 I remember Ronnie bashing the table when he narrowly failed to force a decider, missing I think the green when clearing the colours) (That final was where I 1st saw Murphy's attitude to Ronnie change, he's been full of praise for Ronnie since, not the animosity of previous yrs such as the intrigue heading into round 2 Crucible 2017)
Then Trump, they go through spells of having his number but he gets them back and has theirs, then it happens again and so on... All in all though his H2H record is absolutely excellent vs the tour, is no wonder he has the best % win rate of any player that's had a lengthy career. His tournament success rate is 1/5 abouts too.
- SnookerArcher
- Posts: 182
- Joined: 13 October 2018
- Location: London
- Snooker Idol: Whirlwind and Rocket
- Walk-On: https://youtu.be/wHqdm4KxzMw?t=92 (Utsunomiko Soundtrack)