ROCKET RONNIE O’SULIVAN RETAINS PREMIER LEAGUE TITLE

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The Rocket Ronnie O’Sullivan won the Premier League title for a 5th straight year with a 7-2 victory over Mark Selby in Norfolk.

The world champion got off to a fast start with a break of 93 to go one up and despite a missed red with the rest, a run of 70 put the Chigwell cueman 2-0 ahead.

The 3rd frame was a scrappier affair but a break of 39 sufficed for O’Sullivan.

He quickly won the 4th as well and despite a break of 40 from Selby in the next, O’Sullivan’s 61 was enough to give him a 5-0 lead.

Ronnie O’Sullivan could also have won a tight 6th frame, but he missed a difficult cross double on the pink which was game ball.

That left Mark Selby a long pot, which he dropped in nervelessly and the black from its spot gave the ‘Jester from Leicester’ his first frame.

But it was back to business as usual in the next as Ronnie O’Sullivan rolled in a 105 break after Mark Selby made a mistake. That earned him a £1,000 bonus for the century but more importantly put him 5 frames up with 6 frames to play.

Mark Selby – who beat Stephen Hendry 5-0 in Saturday’s semi-finals – hit back immediately with a run of 84 to make it 6-2.

Mark Selby was first in the balls in the next but ran out of position and after Ronnie O’Sullivan won the subsequent safety exchange, a break of 74 wrapped up the win and the £50,000 first prize for the Essex star.

Overall, O’Sullivan won £75,000 in prize money from the tournament.

Ronnie O’Sullivan : “It is just good to win… every time I play I feel I have to win. To beat someone of Mark’s quality and calibre is fantastic for me, because he is coming after me and they are all coming after me, so I just want to keep them at bay as long as I can.

“I was happy with my form. I was scoring amongst the balls. I’m just happy because it was a final and that’s where you want to produce your snooker where it matters and I was able to do that. I knew I had to do it so it’s even more pleasing.

“I hadn’t played great this season but hopefully this is going to turn it around and I can find a bit of consistency.”