IT TAKES A lot to make Ronnie O’Sullivan look anything other than a casual, swaggering genius, but he has never looked more helpless than when Judd Trump roared back from 9-4 down to take the UK Championship decider to its final frame.
An errant safety shot from Mr Haircut 100 then allowed The Rocket to clear the table en route to victory, but Trump’s scintillating snooker to win five frames in-a-row – which included back-to-back centuries – meant that viewers were treated to the most dramatic finish possible.
Earlier it looked to be another saunter for O’Sullivan after he opened up a 5-1 lead and Trump looked visibly downbeat in his chair after a series of costly misses.
Trump narrowed the gap to 5-3 by the mid-session interval before O’Sullivan once again pulled away to take a seemingly unassailable 9-4 lead.
O’Sullivan missed good chances to capture his fifth UK Championship at 9-4 and 9-7 but despite spending the best part of an hour sitting his in chair while his opponent whittled the deficit down to the minimum, he was able to capitalise on Trump’s error in the deciding frame to see off his rival.
