Most has been said already about this great record equalling 6th Masters title for Ronnie!
I think, as silly and pointless CL is, it gave Ronnie some needed match sharpness ahead of this event. He played absolutely brilliantly in winning Group 1, and as I said gave him confidence to win this one.
He was very shaky, especially beggining, against MJW, but that's totaly understandable being your first match and all. The break he made in the decider was pure class, especially that shot to dislodge the final red.
Then by far his best performance of the tournament came against Mark Selby, a player who has caused him so many heartbreaking defeats in the past. I think Ronnie watching his matches at the UK Champs "helped" him ahead of this one, he knows Mark plays like this against every other opponent, not just him. Ronnie has the upmost respect for him. Sure Selby missed a few early on and his postional play wasn't great, but Ronnie's amazing long potting won him this match really. And at 5-3 down, after that 70 break from Selby, it looked all the world it was going to be 5-4, and we all know Selby gets stronger and stronger and I started fearing the worst like in the past. But Ronnie produced one of his finest ever clearances, that magic 73 break, even Selby couldn't believe what was happening.
Against Bingham at times we saw a fragile O'Sullivan, his head sureçy wasn't right at times out there, maybe, who knows, probably he expected so much to play Higgins in that Semi. Bingham should have been 3-1 up at MSI, he wasn't, and similar to Hawkins in the Final, after winning their respective 1st frames, they for some reason or another never settled down. Ronnie, like the great champ he is, took full advantage of that. That frame he won after needing a snooker was one of his very best to win, especially that stunning shot on the black and long red to keep break alive. In the last frame, one could clearly see Ronnie's frustration, but yet again his long potting won him the match, with one of the best long pots I've seen Ronnnie knock in, it was like I was watching Robbo or Trump play that type of shot.
In the final, Hawkins didnt take advantage of Ronnie's shaky start, but still Ronnie managed to take advantage and after being 3-1 up he just got stronger. Sure, Barry could have made things so much more interesting by making it closer affair, but the damage was already done.
Ronnie played his B game most of the tournament, but that's what he's capble of and still win tournament, Higgins too can win tournaments playing his B game. Ronnie's long potting was as good as I've ever seen from him.
He managed to beat MJW in a decider, WN1 Selby and World Champion Bingham, as well as Hawkins who had just knocked out Judd Trump earlier. As Pink Ball so rightly said, it's about players like Ronnie managing to beat inferior players like hawkins who aren't on same level as say Robbo or Selby on a consistent basis.
Ronnie truly deserves this, especially after almost 8 months off with little competitive matches under his belt.
A 40 year old is still capable of winning Major tournaments like this playing very well in patches, it's up to the top players to up their game if they want to deny him. In the end, out of 16 players, Ronnie is the last man standing, so hats off to him.
Very happy with this win, hopefully more moments like this to come. If not, then he has nothing left to prove in the game.
Ronnie