World Grand Prix: Ronnie O'Sullivan beats Ding Junhui to win title

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Ronnie O'Sullivan
Ronnie O'Sullivan clinched victory before the interval of the evening session

Ronnie O'Sullivan swept to a comfortable 10-3 victory over Ding Junhui to win the World Grand Prix in Preston.

The five-time world champion led 6-3 after the first session and rattled through the next four frames.

Ding's semi-final against world number one Mark Selby had finished in the early hours of Sunday, leaving the Chinese player little time to recover.

O'Sullivan took advantage for his 32nd ranking title and the £100,000 prize.

The 42-year-old Englishman made an early break of 71 to take the opener but Ding managed runs of 53 and 68 to go to 2-2 at the mid-session interval.

However, clearances of 124, 105 and 120 put O'Sullivan in control.

He started the evening session strongly with breaks of 46 and 43 as Ding struggled for fluency, and sealed victory in style with an 83 break.

"It is nice to be playing, competing and having fun," O'Sullivan told ITV Sport. "I re-dedicated myself to the sport before last year's Worlds and put the work in and I have had a few results.

"I haven't played since the Masters [in mid-January] so I came here cold and I got lucky this week."

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78 comments

  • Simply the most talented, gifted and underrated sports person in the world !
    And very likeable !

  • Great win for the Rocket, but not even mentioned on the BBC main sport page? Time for the BBC to lose snooker coverage altogether, you clearly don't care about it anymore and never put them in your biased SPOTY list either.

  • Blinked & missed it. Love watching Ronnie so will have to watch a rerun on the net.

    World Championship soon, hope Ronnie hits top form again, would love to see him level with Reardon & Davis on 6

  • Well done Ronnie. Simply the greatest snooker player ever. Make the most
    of his time on a snooker table as you see such talent once a lifetime.

  • The great players of the past as they got older their forms dropped and their rankings started to go lower, Steve a Davis lost his invincibility in his late 30's to early 40's the same with Stephen Henry similarly his snooker ability weaned down but the amazing thing with ROS as he ages his form is getting better and better no you can't see anyone overtaking him a truly amazing player.

  • The reason why Ronnie is still going, playing to such a high standard, has outlasted the other greats and always will is because he has a god given natural talent, to think he played left handed for a number of years also. Most certainly the greatest snooker player of all time with the personality. Pretty much the same in tennis with Roger Federer and why he is able to still win and continue.

  • Disappointing final even though Ronnie is my favourite . Ding didn’t turn up for the final after playing so well all week , I would have liked to see a crunch match like we saw Ronnie vs Maguire and Selby vs Ding . I think that last night match took a lot out of Ding , Selby can make any players very tired afterwards if he played safely all night like Cliff “Grinder “ Thorburn used to year’s ago .

  • Superb! Top player.best by a country mile.

  • There are two sporting talents in the world that nobody who is sane and objective can deny . Leo Messi and Ronnie O'Sullivan . Pure geniuses . They make it look so easy . It's a shame Osullivan has never been recognised internationally as a genius . What both Messi and Osullivan do on the green surface is nothing short of mind blowing brilliance . Osullivan just edges it over Messi for me (just)

  • 30 (mercedsman). That old chestnut isn't even worth mentioning now - Ronnie O'Sullivan is the greatest player there has ever been; nearly all of the top players agree, fact. Don't get me wrong; Mr Hendry was very good, but Ronnie O'Sullivan's ability is on another level, to state otherwise is absolutely ludicrous.

  • Stephen Hendry at his best VS Ronnie at his best? I wish we had seen that

  • A natural, flowing talent and even beats Joe Davis - who I have seen live. Joe's safety play was better than Ronnie's without a doubt, but Ronnie's ability to break-build is without equal. The best ever - most definitely! Well done Mate.

  • The man who came (in from the) cold... was on fire...

  • When the best Player ever on titles and World Championships (Hendry) says that O Sullivan is the best there has ever been and actually thinks he is getting better, thats good enough for me.

    This game is ridiculously hard to play, but this authentic genius makes it look effortless. His touch, his style, and cue ball control are all different class

    Never will you see the likes of him again

  • “Stephen hendry at peak was miles better than ronnie”

    Nonsense, even Hendry would disagree.

    Stephen Hendry at his peak was miles more consistent than Ronnie but Ronnie can play shots Hendry wouldn’t even contemplate.

  • Well below par this afternoon and still knocked in three centuries to lead 6-3.

    The best front-runner in snooker and 10-3 seemed inevitable after the first frame this evening. Lucky? Get a grip Ronnie. Genius? Definitely.

  • ROS is an amazing talent left and right handed...truly gifted and he makes it look so easy. There is a 147 of his on YouTube which is achieved in not much more time than it takes to boil an egg!

  • This afternoon Ronnie wasn't in great form and still knocked in 3 centuries. This evening he did very little wrong, even when a positional shot went wrong he either played a great recovery or a top safety shot. Ronnie has another level which he doesn't always reach but when he does he's unbeatable, and on normal form he's very hard to beat.

  • Why is there no mention of this on the main sports page. ROS is better at his sport than any other sportsman at theirs. About time the BBC gave some proper coverage to snooker.

  • I'm a die hard Stephen Hendry fan, yet Ronnie is by far the superior player.

    I was lucky enough to grow up watching Hendry, and even more fortunate to be in my early teens when Ronnie started dominating.

    It's testament to Ronnie, that he is still the biggest scalp when he is 42 years old. Father Time can't even touch him.
    Anyone that says different just cannot accept his utter genius.

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