Ronnie O'Sullivan appears to turn down maximum break for 146
Ronnie O'Sullivan bowed out of the Betfred World Championship despite producing another unforgettable Crucible moment.
Ronnie O'Sullivan made a 146 break as he fought back in his Betfred World Championship quarter-final against Ding Junhui.
After 12 reds and blacks, O'Sullivan seemed to deliberately play for the pink when he could have kept a maximum 147 alive.
He cleared the table perfectly from there, cutting his deficit to 11-9, with Ding still two frames from victory.
Come on man.
— Shamoon Hafez (@ShamoonHafez) April 26, 2017
This was the red Ronnie O'Sullivan potted to play on the pink.
Was an easy screwback for the black! #bbcsnooker pic.twitter.com/jLExAMk913
O'Sullivan appeared to enjoy ducking the 147. Twenty years ago he pocketed £165,000 for a maximum that took just five minutes and 20 seconds, but this year his reward would have been a relatively modest £15,000, made up of a high-break prize of £10,000 and a £5,000 maximum bonus.
"Let's just say I don't think he was giving it 110%," said BBC commentator and seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry, of O'Sullivan's efforts to get on the black for a 13th time.
O'Sullivan had a smile on his face as he went about the break, and it remained to be seen if he would confirm after the match that he wilfully snubbed the 147 chance.
At last year's Welsh Open he turned down a maximum - snooker's greatest single-frame exploit - when he learned the prize-money was £12,000.
He said at the time he "didn't think the prize was worthy of a 147", and was criticised by World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn.
Hendry said in commentary on Wednesday that O'Sullivan would be going after the maximum "for the glory", before the break took its twist.
"It won't be the prize he's thinking about because that's disappointing," Hendry added.
