by Snooker Overdrive » 06 Feb 2012 Read
Last night the 2012 German Masters came to a close. It goes without saying that I will remember this tournament very fondly.
The venue is superb. Although I would like the tournament to last a few more days, this tournament is pretty much perfect. Ronnie said it himself, the arena is like Wembley. This event has a bright future. I would even propose to host a second tournament in Germany, the crowds are craving for snooker there.
Stephen Maguire really surprised me this week. I always thought of him highly but he wasn't very convincing the last couple of seasons. Something was missing in his game. But this week he played well. Extremely well. This was the best Maguire I have seen since I watch snooker, even better than in the seasons he was world no. 2. I hope he can build on this week although the final must have been a body blow. Best of luck for the upcoming tournaments.
But now to the Champion. I'm fortunate enough to have witnessed many great O'Sullivan wins in the last couple of years, including all the majors. This is just a normal ranking event but it is as pleasing as the World title in 2008.
Ronnie had a terrible last season and didn't even enter the 2011 German Masters but now, 1 year later, everything has changed. Dr. Peters brought him back on track and he played a very good world championship under the circumstances. He entered all the PTCs and won 2 of them. He missed a few but it was due to illness.
His long pots, his weakness for a couple of years now, improved massively this season. His attitude was good. He was motivated. But things still didn't went to well. The problem: Judd Trump. Ronnie lost in 2 majors in row against the youngster and I heard things like "torch passed", "Ronnie is finished" and "he doesn't have it in him anymore".
O'Sullivan had a good season already before the German Masters but he was slipping down the rankings nonetheless because of his shocking last season. The ranking slip down was like oil in the fire for all the doubters. The worst thing was that the BBC made a tribute in the Masters final to Ronnie's career because they thought he might be done now.
Before the German Masters Ronnie was provisionally out of the top 16. A lot of people didn't think I would make the cut for the Crucible. Then the first round against Andrew Higginson started.
Ronnie didn't play badly before the midsession interval. Higginson played brilliantly and was full of confidence. In the 4. frame Ronnie had a chance to clinch it but he butchered the blue clearing the colours and this frame was also gone.
Ronnie was 0-4 down, in danger of being whitewashed, out of the top 16, he was finished in a match he couldn't afford to lose. It looked like this day would be one of the absolute low points in his career.
But Ronnie didn't roll over, saying I have enough, I don't need this anymore, I won everything there is to win, I don't want anymore. He didn't. He came out fighting. He tried everything possible to turn the match around. Ronnie tried his hardest and won a match he already lost. It was one of the greatest comebacks of his career in context of his situation and he eventual outcome. After that match I just knew that he would win this tournament. It just seemed so logical and inevitable.
Ronnie hammered Perry playing his A+ game 5-1. He beat Matthew Stevens 5-3 and won a nervy semi final 6-4 against Steven Lee. He said afterwards that he was suffering from a virus and he didn't feel too great. I was worried that this might affect his final performance but I was wrong. The final was the incredible finish of his incredible tournament.
Maguire was back at his brilliant best and started superbly with 3 centuries and went 3-1 in the lead. At 5-2 he looked like he would pull away but a strong O'Sullivan clearance kept him in the match. In the evening Maguire again started strong and went 6-3 in the lead. But after that everything changed. Maguire gave Ronnie 1 simple chance and the match flipped on its head. All of a sudden Ronnie was making all the noise and won frame after frame. He pushed hard, very hard. Maguire felt the pressure and missed a pressure ball. Ronnie made it 6-6 and showed a rare fist pump. All of a sudden Maguire was missing the long pots and Ronnie had the momentum and powered to a 8-6 lead. Everything looked to be over after Ronnie split the reds perfectly but he screwed up position on the black and missed a tricky black. Maguire gathered confidence from that miss and pulled off a great clearance. What followed was the last frame of the championship. Ronnie got a healthy 50 odds point lead with the colours awkward and far away from the reds. Ronnie lost a very long safety exchange and Maguire had the chance. He pulled off some incredible shots but missed eventually a tricky red in the left bottom corner. After a spell of safeties Ronnie fluked a snooker which Maguire didn't get safe. Ronnie potted match ball yellow but couldn't pot green. Maguire played on for safeties and eventually laid one behind the black with the blue just above the left middle pocket. Ronnie hit the blue but the white got in off. The fairytale tournament seemed to develop into a nightmare just before the finish line.
But the blue wasn't pottable and Maguire played safe. Ronnie got the white near the left bottom corner and blue near the top left corner with the pink and black on their spots. Maguire tried to power it in, missed and didn't get it safe. Ronnie potted the blue, made a fist pump, calmed himself down and potted the pink to finish the match.
Ronnie was exhausted but extremely happy and pleased with what he achieved.
After such a long drought there was nothing greater than Ronnie finally winning a ranking title again. After the 2009 Shanghai Masters I was pleased but I wasn't over the moon. This time I am. This victory means so much. Ronnie showing all the world that he can still do it under pressure in a ranking event against fully motivated top players. I loved the way he won. Even though it's great to steamroll an opponent in the final, like Maguire in the UK, it is just something else to pull a hard fought match out of the fire like Ronnie did yesterday.
I rank this win very highly, to be honest it was just as great as winning the UK or World in the 2007/08 season. The circumstances make this win so great. I am just so glad to have witnessed such an incredible win from Ronnie O'Sullivan.
