Last night Judd Trump and Ronnie O'Sullivan played in the final match of PTC9 in Antwerp. The match was a best of seven, as the whole tournament had been. Obviously I was excited to see two of the most attacking and entertaining players on the tour clash.
The match itself was phenomenal. I've been following snooker for something like a decade now, and this match has to be one of the best matches ever. I mean, how often do you wish that instead of best-of-seven the whole thing would be best-of-one hundred and seven? Jimmy White tweeted during the match: "One word, 'effortless'". Brilliant stuff from both players: first six frames each had a break of at least 50, with two centuries from Ronnie when 3-1 down. Long potting was out of this world, break building fluent, and once the frame was secure both players chose to further entertain the crowd with some serious stroke shots. It was, in a word, entertaining.
Sure, they did not play that many safeties, and some might say that such an open and attacking style is not proper snooker. You know what, they made most of those shots a more conservative player would never even have attempted. And the crowd loved every minute of it. Every 90 minutes or so that it took these fellows to finish seven frames. Yeah, it was fast.
Now I'm just rambling. I apologize. I just had to. Forget PowerSnooker, Shoot-outs and all that. Last night was the real deal.
I don't know if the match is already available on youtube etc., but do yourself a favour and look it up. Here's Ronnie with a 132 in frame six: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wyKPwWAepA
J.S.
The match itself was phenomenal. I've been following snooker for something like a decade now, and this match has to be one of the best matches ever. I mean, how often do you wish that instead of best-of-seven the whole thing would be best-of-one hundred and seven? Jimmy White tweeted during the match: "One word, 'effortless'". Brilliant stuff from both players: first six frames each had a break of at least 50, with two centuries from Ronnie when 3-1 down. Long potting was out of this world, break building fluent, and once the frame was secure both players chose to further entertain the crowd with some serious stroke shots. It was, in a word, entertaining.
Sure, they did not play that many safeties, and some might say that such an open and attacking style is not proper snooker. You know what, they made most of those shots a more conservative player would never even have attempted. And the crowd loved every minute of it. Every 90 minutes or so that it took these fellows to finish seven frames. Yeah, it was fast.
Now I'm just rambling. I apologize. I just had to. Forget PowerSnooker, Shoot-outs and all that. Last night was the real deal.
I don't know if the match is already available on youtube etc., but do yourself a favour and look it up. Here's Ronnie with a 132 in frame six: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wyKPwWAepA
J.S.
