YORK, England — Ronnie O’Sullivan beat Shaun Murphy 10-5 in the final of the UK Championship to win a record-equalling sixth UK Championship title at York’s Barbican Center on Sunday.
The 42-year-old, also a five-time world champion, pulled away from 5-5 to reel off the last five frames in just 60 minutes to take the 170,000 pounds top prize. During the contest he made three centuries and seven more breaks over 50.
He then leveled the record held by Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry.
O’Sullivan, who won the event for the first time in 1993 when he was only 17, has won three ranking titles in an golden seven-week spell in which he has banked nearly 450,000 pounds in prize money.
He landed the English Open in October and the Shanghai Masters in November and his career tally of ranking crowns now stands at 31, just five behind another of Hendry’s records. He also reached the final of the Champion of Champions last month, losing to Murphy.
O’Sullivan said, “It’s just nice to win another title, though I don’t even really feel excited by it, I don’t get too emotionally involved now. Playing snooker keeps me out of trouble, if I wasn’t playing I’d probably be going off the rails. As long as I play snooker it’ll keep me reeled in.
“I look forward to the Masters because it’s around the corner and it is a great event. Hopefully I can pick my game up and dominate a tournament rather than just scramble through.”
Murphy said: “I thought the better man won by far. When you play Ronnie O’Sullivan in any match your game has to be the best it could possibly be. He is the greatest player we’ve ever seen and unfortunately today for whatever reason my game wasn’t good enough.
“I thought the difference today was his safety, it had me in real trouble most of the time. I’m not the world’s best tactical safety player and he exposed those weaknesses as true legends do.”
