RONNIE O’Sullivan has won his first ranking title since September 2009 after producing an exciting comeback to defeat Stephen Maguire 9-7 to claim the PartyPoker.net German Masters trophy at the Tempadrome in Berlin.
‘The Rocket’ began the match strongly with a 111 in the opening frame, but Maguire, who whitewashed both John Higgins and Shaun Murphy en route to the final, hit back in the next with a run of 130, which was the highest break of the tournament so far.
The Scot, who recently won a PTC event in Germany, built on this with successive breaks of 106 and 128 to go 3-1 ahead at the mid-session interval.
O’Sullivan, who has been battling glandular fever this week, looked to be settling into the match when play resumed, but he broke down on 58 and Maguire returned to steal the frame.
The sixth frame was a scrappier affair, but O’Sullivan eventually took it, however, Maguire restored his three frame advantage in the seventh with a 55.
A break of 75 from O’Sullivan in the final frame of the afternoon session finally put the brakes on Maguire’s strong run, giving him renewed hope going into the evening.
Maguire started the evening session strongly by potting five reds and five blacks, but when he broke down O’Sullivan hit back with a 96 clearance to cut the deficit to two frames, and then took the next to reduce it to just one.
With momentum drifting away from him, Maguire made a 52, but once again failed to close down the frame and O’Sullivan seized his opportunity and levelled the match, punching the air as he did so.
When play resumed after the mid-session interval, O’Sullivan made break of 67 to take the lead for the first time since the opening frame, with the score at 7-6.
He quickly made this 8-6, and looked to be on course to win the match in the 15th frame with a run of 43, which ended when he caught the black in the jaws of the pocket, and Maguire stayed in the match by responding with an 82 clearance.
Both players agreed to a rerack following a period of stalemate in the 16th frame, and when they resumed the cagey play continued until O’Sullivan built up a break of 46.
Maguire battled on, and got within 17 points of his opponent but soon founding himself needing a snooker. O’Sullivan escaped from it but went in off. Maguire went on to miss the blue, and, after a frame lasting nearly 40 minutes, O’Sullivan finally clinched the match.
Speaking afterwards, O’Sullivan said: “All credit to Stephen, because he’s had a great tournament.
“He’s played really well and is playing as well now as when he first came on the scene and I tipped him to be the dominant player of the decade.
“He outplayed me today, I hung in there and nicked frames.”
O’Sullivan paid tribute to the Tempadrome in Berlin, which has hosted the event since its inception in 2011. He said: “This is the best venue we play in on the tour. It used to be Wembley Conference Centre … but it’s brilliant to play here and get to the final.
“I’m 36 now and coming to the end of my career so every victory now is nice. If I can nick a tournament here or there it’s great – it would be nice to go out at the top.”
Meanwhile, Maguire admitted he was severely disappointed with the way the final had panned out, and emphasised the importance of the 12th frame. He said: “I should have made it 7-5 but I played a bad positional shot and when it went 6-6 he had the rhythm – I think that was the turning point in the match.
“I’ve beaten some good players this week and if I’m honest I probably wasn’t expecting to get to the final – but I can’t look at it that way now … I just want to jump off a bridge.”