Ronnie O’Sullivan has summed up his UK Championship success with a short and simple message. The Rocket won a record eighth triumph in York on Sunday, 30 years after he won the tournament for the first time.
O’Sullivan beat Ding Junhui 10-7 just two days before he turns 48. He has become the oldest winner of the tournament and also holds the accolade of the youngest winner from his triumph as a 17-year-old back in 1993.
He upset the odds to beat Stephen Hendry on that occasion to start one of the sport’s greatest rivalries. Thirty years on, O’Sullivan is still winning competitions despite his much-publicised struggles away from the table.
And a message he put on X late on Sunday evening said it all. O’Sullivan posted a picture of him lifting the UK Championship trophy from 1993 and another of him from this year’s tournament.
He simply captioned the images: “How it started. How it’s going.” O’Sullivan also paid tribute to Ding for giving him a tough encounter.
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He wrote in another post: “Number 8! Firstly I want to congratulate and thank Ding. He’s an incredible player and an even better person.
“Secondly, I want to thank the support I’ve had all this week. You guys have been brilliant and I’m glad I could get the win for you.”
O’Sullivan beat Zhou Yuelong in the quarter-finals and old rival Hossein Vafaei in the semis to set up Sunday’s final. He and Ding put on a show for the crowd at the Barbican Centre but O’Sullivan ultimately proved too strong.
The world No 1 is still loving the winning feeling, saying afterwards: “Each tournament I win, I get great pleasure out of. Tonight I just had to come out tonight and have a good head.
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“I thought if I was going to lose I had to make Ding earn it. There’s a big crowd here, I wanted to give them their money’s worth. Blood, sweat and tears at the table. I gave it my all.
“I keep beating myself up because of the age thing, I keep thinking at some stage it’s going to stop. But I’ll keep going until the wheels fall off!”
And how does O’Sullivan compare himself to 30 years ago? “I just feel more experienced and I don’t panic at all,” he said.
“I haven’t anything to prove, so if I lose it’s no big deal. It’s still nice to win but I’m just enjoying it. I feel a different player now than I ever did years ago; I’m a bit more rounded.”
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