Rocket powers to victory
With the exception of the afternoon session against Selby, O'Sullivan has been in stunning form this week
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Sunday, 16, Dec 2007 09:10
Ronnie O'Sullivan has thumped Stephen Maguire 10-2 to win the UK Championships at Telford.
The Essex player ended his 32-month wait for a world ranking title with an emphatic victory, having been 8-0 ahead after the afternoon session.
O'Sullivan, who fired a 147 to pip Mark Selby in a thrilling semi-final last night, continued his scorching form against Maguire.
The 32-year-old made breaks of 54 and 66 to take the opening frame before taking a scrappy second frame 68-1.
O'Sullivan, nicknamed 'The Rocket', then hit breaks of 78 and 66 to race into a 4-0 lead.
After the mid-session interval, the two-time world champion threatened a whitewash with breaks of 53 and 78 to go 6-0 ahead.
The lack of table time cost Maguire as the Scot missed a red using the rest in frame seven and missed a long pot on a red in the next frame.
O'Sullivan punished the errors with breaks of 52 and 40 to increase his advantage to 8-0.
Maguire ended the rout in the opening frame of the evening session with a fluent break of 99 to get off the mark.
O'Sullivan hit back with a break of 126 to move within one frame of clinching his 19th ranking title.
Maguire then made it 9-2 with some solid safety play and a break of 57, but O'Sullivan hit a break of 94 in frame 12 to clinch victory and his first title since the 2005 Irish Masters.