Scottish Open Snooker 2020: how Ronnie O’Sullivan and Mark Selby became the best enemies

For the jester from Leicester, the last laugh. Grabbing her six-year-old daughter, Sofia, after a 9-3 win over Ronnie O’Sullivan, who bizarrely failed in a bad-tempered Scottish Open final, Mark Selby lived up to his mischievous nickname when he discussed a slightly surreal victory with the six-time world finalist and Eurosport expert Jimmy ‘Whirlwind’ White.

“She told me before, ‘Jimmy gave me ten pounds. I don’t know whether to spend it or frame it, ”he said.

Selby also enjoyed a black ball comedy after O’Sullivan landed in the final after having beaten four tips and six opponents, including two deciding in the final draw against Tian Pengfei and Ding junhui – while complaining again about his lack of consistent signal action that earned him a sixth world title in August.

“If I had to choose to win a tournament, I would probably like to face Ronnie in the final every time because he is the best player to play,” said Selby, who joins the world number one. Judd Trump and champion of the United Kingdom Neil robertson in 19 victories in career ranking events. “Today, he didn’t play great, but I didn’t play very well, and he probably needs some new advice. I’ll have a few days off and go back to the practice table.

“I could have played a lot better, I really felt like I was looking for my cue action all day.”

With no fans present and the Marshall Arena racked by Covid tests and men with muzzles, you better have fun in those devastating times. What the two main leads did before the festive mood turned a bit sour in Milton Keynes.

For the world champion, it was no laughing matter, as Selby bounced back to some extent from losing 17-16 to his former rival in an epic Crucible semifinal in August that saw Rocket climb out of his seat to win the final three frames. . quickly while biting into a tip with glistening breaks of 138, 71 and 64.

Selby added to his success at the European Masters in September by claiming the Stephen Hendry trophy, equaling the seven-time world champion’s record of 11 consecutive wins in qualifying finals set in the 1990s.

For O’Sullivan, who once described Selby as “the torturer,” it turned out to be a torturous experience, as he failed to score hard enough with several obvious opportunities presented to him bypassing his normally unflappable break-building instincts.

Perhaps the torment of the tip tipped the balance in Selby’s favor. Who knows, but it was difficult to suggest that the scoreboard did not reflect the balance of power.

“Sometimes the game may seem easy, but sometimes it can be very difficult,” said a philosophical O’Sullivan, who remains the most prolific qualifying event winner of all time at 37.

The match was rife with ridiculous and eccentric moments, as referee Leo Scullion had to stop O’Sullivan in the third frame, losing 2-1 and 82-25 with only Black on the table.

There were also accusations of skill for the game of both figures. Selby claimed that O’Sullivan was chalking his signal to distract him early in the joust by arguing to the contrary that Selby’s water bottle was playing, if not his bottle.

Neither of them were able to shake hands at the end, but they also didn’t seem in the mood to hug each other when the balls stopped rolling. There’s nothing wrong with a little spice to liven up a pool scene O’Sullivan said was devoid of character last week.

“I’m playing a long red in the corner and he stood up,” explained Selby. “I could see it in my eye line and just as I was about to hit the shot, he started chalking his cue hard quite hard.

“I got up from the shot and looked at him and he raised his eyebrows as if to say ‘sorry, I didn’t realize I was doing it.’

Citing O’Sullivan’s verbal fight with Mark allen in the Champion of Champions quarterfinals last month, a match that the Antrim man won 6-3 on his way to lifting the trophy, Selby added: “I was telling the referee that I was making noises and moving, similar to what he was doing to Mark Allen.

“I think it was because I was on top of him and he was getting nervous. He doesn’t like people competing with him. “

O’Sullivan replied by asking the referee to intervene in the fourth frame when he claimed that his rival was making noise with a bottle of water.

“He thought I was scoring my cue and I was putting him off, but it wasn’t even in his eye line,” O’Sullivan said. “I was in my chair when he was playing a safety shot. It seemed a little strange to me, so when he started doing that, I thought ‘I could pull you too.

“So I said ‘is there any chance you can’t do it when I’m on my shot?’ But there is no problem between Mark and me, I think we have to thank each other for pushing us to be better players. “

Anything goes in love and a war of words.

While Selby performed with his usual level of concrete consistency, his victory was aided by O’Sullivan who lost his usual vital spark. He had multiple chances in the afternoon and evening sessions to catch Selby but missed key balls, most notably a straight red in the eighth frame as he was about to get close to 5-3 behind and that turned out to be a crucial moment in the narrative.

Perhaps it was an indicative conclusion to a match that was anticlimax with no fans present, as O’Sullivan again broke at 64 in frame 12 before Selby punted with 76 to carry the winner’s check of £ 70,000.

For the record, Selby, you are facing Liang wenbo Wednesday afternoon in his first game at the World Grand Prix – he also contributed 102, 78, 77, 62, 61, 56, 51 and 50 with his opponent running at 72, 62 and 58, modest by his mercurial standards.

Whether O’Sullivan’s struggles were due to the game’s lack of sharpness or lack of focus is a moot point. It would probably be fairer to suggest that it was a sterile day at the office rather than a bad one, as some of O’Sullivan’s production during the week was still surprisingly good.

For a large number of players on the World Snooker Tour, reaching a final is beyond their wildest dreams. At the age of 45, playing stumbling, O’Sullivan has reached two qualifying finals this season, losing 9-7 to Trump at the English Open and Selby at the Scottish Open, a year in which Milton Keynes it became part of Milton’s Glasgow district.

There is little wrong with his game at any level aside from the finer points of gameplay that can and will be corrected in the coming months, one would be suspicious after he suggested he was in experimental mode after his 6-4 win over Li Hang having lost 4-1 in the semifinals.

“If I play more tournaments over the next six months, it will interest me to see where my game is at the World Championship,” he said.

If there was an era of the big four in tennis when considering the dominance of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray for an extended period, billiards is now in the hands of the bridge of the big four.

The world number one, Trump, has won the Open in England and Northern Ireland, Selby is the champion of the European Masters and the Scottish Open. Neil robertson picked up his third UK Championship last week and O’Sullivan is the world champion. For sustained brilliance, it’s hard to see past the million-dollar quartet anytime soon.

Selby entered the final as a slight favorite in form, and those odds were justified by the way the final unraveled, as he rarely flustered. Forward and sideways with the World Grand Prix beginning Monday in Milton Keynes and Robertson defending the title he picked up in February.

It’s never a dull moment for Rocket Ronnie, who can relax knowing he has a first-round match at the World Grand Prix on Tuesday night against his old friend from Essex. Ali ‘Captain’ Carter, a skilled airplane pilot whose rivalry with O’Sullivan is arguably as fierce as the Selby saga.

Out of the fire and into the flying pan, you could say.