Ronnie O’Sullivan wins World Snooker Grand Prix after taking SIX straight frames to come back against Judd Trump

11 months ago 74

HEALTH conscious Ronnie O’Sullivan beat Judd Trump in the World Grand Prix final – and then attributed the success to an Air Fryer and Smoothie Maker.

The Rocket celebrated a 41st career ranking title with a century-less 10-7 win over the Juddernaut in Leicester.

It comes on the back of his Masters triumph at the Ally Pally the previous weekend – which also saw a fiery press conference tirade against Ali Carter.

O’Sullivan felt poorly at the start of the week in the East Midlands but started to eat better and then his energy and confidence returned.

The 48-year-old, who was 4-0 down and then 6-3 behind, said: “I enjoyed that. I really did. At the start of the week, I was feeling a bit rough.

“I bought myself an Air Fryer and a smoothie maker. I started eating a bit better and I started feeling like myself.

“Yeah, I don’t like eating junk food. It puts me in a bit of a funny place.

“I started to feel better as the week went on.

“Enjoy the battle. You have to battle against Judd. He’s a warrior. For me, he’s the favourite for the world championship this year, he’s strong.

“I enjoyed the match. Judd blasted me off the table and at 4-0, I was thinking, this could be an early night, like a 10-1 job.

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“But I managed to nick a few frames this afternoon. At 5-3 down, it gave me a bit of optimism and I just thought, just try, see what happens.”

O’Sullivan played “some of my best snooker” on Saturday night as he demolished Ding Junhui 6-1 in the semi-finals with three century breaks.

Alan McManus, a former Masters champion, described that 73-minute masterclass as “the best performance in the history of the game in a single match”.

Yet despite this being a contest of world No.1 versus No.2, there were no fireworks, no breaks above 75 and no scintillating snooker.

In fact, it was one of the worst sessions we have seen between these two in their long and decorated history.

Unpredictably and unusually, it was error-ridden with multiple in-offs, fouls-and-misses, sloppy shots and for O’Sullivan, two dodgy kicks on the cue-ball.

Part of the problem, according to Stephen Hendry, were the “dodgy” table conditions, which were impacted by Storm Isha outside.

Trump, who opened up with a 74, won the first four frames and was looking extremely comfortable for that advantage.”

But where we had seen inspiration from O’Sullivan the night before, this time there was perspiration.

Winning three frames in the afternoon session meant he went into the evening action just 5-3 behind and with a chance of mounting a comeback.

Even when he fell 6-3 down, he did not lose hope and like he did in the Masters final with Carter, he fought back impressively.

Trump, 34, had a chance to draw level at 7-7 but despite doing all the hard work in frame 14, he missed the final black and O’Sullivan tapped it in to move 8-6 in front.

The Bristol player stopped the rot with a 73 in frame 16 but then a generous fluke on the red enabled O’Sullivan to take a stranglehold of frame 17 to claim a FOURTH title this campaign.

This is his 14th match-win in a row – his last defeat came in professional combat on November 11

He has banked £600,000 in prize money from the UK Championship, Masters and now World Grand Prix – at least he could lift this trophy this time despite his painful elbow.

Trump said: “Ronnie missed a few at the start. The standard wasn’t very good.

“But Ronnie cleaned up when he needed to.

“There were a couple of important frames. Important breaks he made. Important clearances. His safety was a lot better. He was getting in first and scoring a bit heavier.

“There was a lot of ups-and-downs in that second session. He scored heavier. His long potting was very good. Overall, a well-deserved win for him.”