| Flash of genius puts Rocket into final |
| DATA： 2008-10-06 |
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| England’s Ronnie O’Sullivan aims at the ball during the semifinal against Scotland’s Stephen Maguire in the 2008 World Snooker Roewe Shanghai Masters in Shanghai on Saturday night.Xinhua |
O’Sullivan admitted he was lucky to get through a tough semifinal, as Maguire had a clear chance to win 6-4. But there was nothing fortunate about O’Sullivan’s winning break, as his knack of taking deciding frames in a single visit came to the fore.
The Rocket goes through to face Ricky Walden over 19 frames in the final, and victory would give him three consecutive ranking titles for the first time in his career. No player has achieved that feat since Stephen Hendry in 1993.
O’Sullivan, 32, won the 888.com World Snooker Championship at the end of the last season and the Northern Ireland Trophy at the beginning of the new campaign. He has now won 14 consecutive ranking event matches, though it very nearly proved unlucky 13 for the Chigwell cueman as world No. 2 Maguire took him to the wire.
The start of the match was surprisingly scrappy, four of the first five frames lasting over 18 minutes. O’Sullivan made breaks of 74 and 58 but it was Maguire who led 3-2 despite a top run of just 69.
The contest caught fire in frame six as O’Sullivan blasted in a 141 total clearance then added an 84 for 4-3. He was among the balls on 21 in the next but unluckily knocked a red into a baulk corner in splitting the pack off the black. Glasgow’s Maguire capitalized with a 101 and kept his momentum going with a 76 for 5-4.
The Scot had two scoring chances in frame 10 but could only make 25 points. First he missed the black along the top cushion then, presented with a match-winning opportunity, he faltered on a tricky red, hitting the wrong red first as he bridged awkwardly over other balls.
O’Sullivan pounced with an 87 for 5-5 then needed no second invitation when a poor safety from Maguire early in the decider left him in prime position. O’Sullivan mis-judged a cannon on 31 but recovered with a brilliant long red to a baulk corner, gaining position on the black before going on to clear the table.(SD-Agencies)