Ronnie takes first title of season
Ronnie O’Sullivan collected the first title of the season in Glasgow tonight and then set his sights on writing his name into the snooker record books.
O’Sullivan avenged his defeat in last year’s final by defeating defending champion John Higgins 9-4 in the climax to the 2002 Regal Masters.
Victory for the ’Rocket’ was his eighth in Scotland and the 25th of a glittering but often controversial career.
His reward was a cheque for £65,000 while Higgins, denied a chance to win the trophy for his one-year-old son Pierce, collected £32,000.
O’Sullivan, who equalled Stephen Hendry’s achievement of three Regal crowns, was never behind in a high quality final.
He led 3-0 and 5-1 before his 27-year-old Scottish opponent briefly threatened to make a contest of it.
Higgins reduced his deficit to 5-4 before O’Sullivan turned on the turbo chargers. He allowed the holder just 65 points in the closing four frames while he accumulated breaks of 43, 112, 52 and 91.
“I’ve been working on my game for the last couple of years and certain things are coming back to me that make sense,” said the world number one and former world champion.
“I still struggle at times but now I’m more confident of my form coming back. I came to Glasgow with high expectations because I’ve been demoralising players in practice.
“But I know it’s so much different in matches because you only get once chance. Just to win one match was nice, to win two was fantastic and to win three is even better.”
O’Sullivan’s latest success sets him up for the rest of the season, starting with the LG Cup in Preston on Saturday.
“I’d like to win 50 or 60 titles by the time I end my career,” he revealed. It will be hard to win 70 like Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry.
“But I definitely think I can win 50 odd. That’s the sort of goal I need to set myself to keep my interest.
“I feel I can win three or four more world championships and another couple UK titles.
I’d like to try and be the best player in the world for as long as I can.”
On his day, there is no doubt O’Sullivan is the best in the business and Higgins had no complaints about finishing second best.
“Ronnie was a worthy winner,” he confirmed. “The chances I had I couldn’t take. And the way I was playing I couldn’t get close to him.
“Even when I got back to 5-4 I couldn’t put any pressure on him. I did well in these invitation events last season and not in the ranking tournaments so it would be nice if I can change that around with Preston coming up.”
