It’s been a week since Ronnie O’Sullivan lifted his sixth World Championship trophy. A lot of people will say that’s the biggest success story. Considering a few of us weren’t sure if there was going to be a World Championship at all this year, the success story for me was that the Worlds actually happened.
Not only that, O’Sullivan overtook Stephen Hendry’s record by winning his 37th ranking title. He was also involve in the quickest World Championship match ever in his 10-1 thrashing against Thepchaiya Un-Nooh. Understandably, that reignited a debate over the greatest snooker who has ever lived. It was a epic tournament for The Rocket.
But the 2020 World Snooker Championship wasn’t just the Ronnie O’Sullivan show. Interestingly, the group of sixteen qualifiers made more of a lasting impact on the tournament than the sixteen seeds. We saw a few qualifiers in the ‘better than his ranking suggests’ category showing what they are capable of. No World Championship is complete without a surprise package and an inspirational backstory too.
There are also a couple of controversies. The provocation caused by Anthony Hamilton’s withdrawal got Snooker Twitter flaring up. Then we were treated to a grudge match that no-one expected to be a grudge match. Finally, there is the ‘chalk and cheese’ rivalry between O’Sullivan and Mark Selby. We know by now that whenever these two titans face each other, so do their fans on Twitter. It’s never seems to be calm and collected either.
Ronnie O’Sullivan Is Victorious In Style
Ronnie O’Sullivan was badly affected by his 2014 final loss to Mark Selby. Many thought that Ronnie O’Sullivan wouldn’t win the World Championship final again, myself included. I was even more skeptical before the World Championship because of the endurance and living in overly-stringent conditions, something he wasn’t comfortable with at the Championship League. By O’Sullivan’s admission he said the lack of crowd at the Crucible helped him win his title.
But Ronnie showed what he is capable of without the pressures from the crowd. He scored twelve centuries and stole many frames. O’Sullivan made many brilliant comebacks too. Beating Mark Williams from 7-2 down and Selby from 13-9 and 16-14 down was remarkable. The way he dismantled Kyren Wilson in the final by winning eight frames in a row was great to watch. He is a worthy winner!
Qualifiers Show Their Stuff
Anthony McGill and Kurt Maflin are two players that came into the tournament with a lower ranking than expected. But their performances were rewarded gladly. McGill rose from No. 39 to No. 22, while Maflin went from No. 43 to No. 27, which is his highest ranking to date. Thailand’s Noppon Saengkham made a great impression by dispatching Shaun Murphy and almost cast aside Selby and rejoined the Top 32 as a result.
Probably the most pleasant surprise was Jamie Clarke. Not only the No. 89 seed managed to keep his professional status, but also made his Crucible debut, won his opening match by beating Mark Allen 10-8 and won many fans during his Last 16 encounter against Anthony McGill. Not bad really.
Tensions Rage On Social Media
Even Snooker Twitter is vulnerable to the red mist occasionally.
That is evident during the McGill / Clarke and especially the O’Sullivan / Selby matches. Rivalries make any sport exciting and it is what keeps ourselves engrossed to the spectacle of sportspeople giving everything they got. But sometimes things do go out of hand.
It isn’t wrong to dislike a player because Player A is too arrogant or Player B’s style is boring to watch for example. But it gets tedious when these emotional outbursts turn to points-scoring and gloating. If one is slightly critical of Player A then that person is deemed to know nothing about snooker. I’ve heard more arguments over Selby’s supposed gamesmanship and O’Sullivan’s suspected disrespect more times than John Higgins making a maximum! Sometimes these things just need to be put to bed but it will be until Selby and O’Sullivan meet again…
Good Memories
I would’ve wanted to know the World Snooker Championship for things other than the controversy surrounding the O’Sullivan-Selby match. The match itself was good to watch! Then there was Higgins’s maximum and Judd Trump reaching the century of centuries.
There are a number of memorable matches. The best matches include Kurt Maflin and David Gilbert, Anthony McGill and Jamie Clarke and Ronnie O’Sullivan and Mark Williams. The best frame no doubt was the deciding frame between Kyren Wilson and Anthony McGill. That frame will live long in the memory. But this tournament has given a lot of Ronnie O’Sullivan fans hope that O’Sullivan will equal Hendry’s record of seven World titles.
Goodness knows what will happen, especially since O’Sullivan said that he will return to a reduced schedule next season. But it will be difficult to rule him out of the next World Championship!
Yes I agree the best thing was that it happened at all, and I thought the players did well – much better than I expected – desipte having limited preparation and almost no matches for such a long time. Because of this, I think the overall standard of the top players was a notch lower than we normally see in a World Championship, and this would have helped the qualifiers, who at least had some matches behind them.
Both finalists were extremely lucky to reach the final. I’m not saying they didn’t deserve it, but their opponents missed very makeable chances in the closing stages. Nevertheless it was a worthy World Championship, and the final day was a great showcase of Ronnie O’Sullivan’s unique abilities.
At the moment it’s not clear when the 2021 World Championship will take place. The table conditions in the Crucible are often poor, but maybe they will have to consider using a humidity cloth if it’s played in the summer again, particularly with the return of spectators throughout (we hope!).