2014 Welsh Open - Rocket Ronnie flying high

The 2014 Welsh Open champion - Ronnie O'Sullivan

Ronnie O'Sullivan's done it again! Yet another splendid victory, this time obtained in front of one-hell-of-a-player, Ding Junhui whom he beat 9-3 to lift the 2014 Welsh Open trophy.

It's quite rare to see such tremendous players get together, and yet the match to go on and be an one-sided one, but this was the drill with tonight's final. Unfortunately Ding wasn't in the right frame of mind at the beginning of the final and that has cost him a lot.

On the other hand, Ronnie was on top of the heap: happy, focused, eager to win, glad to be playing, taking chances, hitting like a snooker God ... well, everything he is not when he's not in the mood for snooker.

The Rocket started his Welsh Open journey by hammering Mitchell Travis 4-1, followed by Barry Pinches, Xiao Guodong and Ricky Walden (all by the same scoreline), found his next victim in the person of John Higgins, whom he ruthlessly defeated by 5-1, only to end with a re-match of last year World Championship final against Barry Hawkins, who was left behind at 6-2.

When the final against Ding Junhui kicked off, we all had hopes to see a more balanced cues-crossing, but it became quite clear that it wasn't going to happen, especially when Ronnie flew at 3-0 up with runs of 30, 91 and 70.

Ding managed to pull back a frame, as the mid-session interval was starting, frame that he won on the black, but the first session ended with O'Sullivan's name written all over it. Just with a top break of 92, the Essex-man was making the scoreboard freeze at 7-1.

The 2014 Welsh Open runner-up -  Ding Junhui

As the match resumed, things seemed a bit different. A totally changed Ding, fully focused and eager to make a dramatic comeback was potting like crazy!

A magnificent clearance of 109 was bringing him a frame, while a very solid 121 was paving the road to the much-wanted and much-needed comeback.

But it was a bit late and the pressure was on, weighting heavy on his shoulders, so with runs of 48 and 49 O'Sullivan was adding one more letter to his champion title. It was 8-3.

The last frame was just ... out of this world! Not only did Ronnie win it and captured the Welsh Open title by doing so, but he also hit an outstanding 147 in the process! I mean what the hell? Since we are going to win this tournament, let's close the deal with a real treat! And we all know how a 147 is made when Ronnie's at the table!

Needless to say that he holds the record after this 147, which is by the way "only" his 12^th one! I mean, a real piece of cake, if we think about it, right? Says the person, whose maximum break is 1.

Gracious in defeat, as always, Ding even joked about being happy for Ronnie's 147 and enjoying every minute of it, acknowledging that at the end of the day the Englishman was the better player.

The "exchanging pleasantries" moment continued with a very-chatty O'Sullivan who congratulated Ding for his latest performances and made the entire world aware that this kid has got what it takes to become world champion one day. 
 

A very happy Rocket

The cherry on top was seeing the Rocket actually smiling, waving at the crowd and even giving a heartfelt kiss to the rocky Welsh Open trophy, while the photographs army was dying to immortalize his moment of glory.

He seemed pretty happy with himself and his playing and we all know that this is a huge and definitive factor on him winning/losing a match, but what strikes me most about his performance when he's in the mood, is the clarity, fluency and easiness of playing ... it's like floating on air!

And so he's written another tremendous story to go in the history book of snooker, to impress generations to come and inspire players all over the world.

Below you can see Ronnie O'Sullivan's tremendous 12th 147 break. Enjoy! ;-)