O’Sullivan equals Hendry’s record of Championship wins after defeating Trump in final

 

Ronnie O’Sullivan claimed his seventh World Championship title after defeating Judd Trump 18-13 to equal Stephen Hendry’s record in the modern era.

O’Sullivan became the oldest world champion in crucible history at the age of 46 eclipsing Ray Reardon, who won his sixth title in 1975 at the grand age of 45.

O’Sullivan always led from the front despite Trump winning six frames of Monday’s afternoon session to battle back to 14-11.

The Rocket turned on the style in the final session to win four of the evening’s first six frames to fend off the Trump fightback.

The Englishman has now won 39 ranking titles and will finish the season as the world’s top-ranked player.

In eight championship finals, O’Sullivan has only ever4 lost once, that was back in 2014 when he lost to Mark Selby 18-14.

The Rocket has looked back to his best the past fortnight in Sheffield having dumped David Gilbert 10-5, Mark Allen 13-4, Stephen Maguire 13-5 and John Higgins 17-11 out of the tournament by playing some of his best snooker this season.

He has been in situations during his career where he has fallen in and out of love with the sport. However, when he really is focused there is no finer player to watch around the table.

Right from his first-round match to the final he has looked fully focused and determined to win this title after all, admitting he wasn’t sure if and when he would ever win another world championship.

There has certainly been a lot of peeks and troughs along the way in the career of the Rocket, but the past two weeks have proved why the word genius applies to him.

Now he looks hungry for an eighth world title and let’s face it nobody can doubt that that will never happen.

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