Ronnie O’Sullivan wins Shanghai Masters with victory in opposition to Luca Brecel in thrilling closing

Ronnie O’Sullivan gained a fourth consecutive Shanghai Masters title, and fifth in whole, with an exhilarating 11-9 victory in opposition to Luca Brecel in Sunday’s closing.

Snooker followers wakened on Sunday morning hoping to see an epic encounter between world No. 1 O’Sullivan and world champion Brecel, and so they weren’t left disillusioned.

The pair gained enthralling semi-finals in opposition to Mark Selby and Neil Robertson respectively, and so they each introduced their A-games to the showpiece occasion.

O’Sullivan – arguably the best snooker participant of all time – gained the opening body of the match, however Brecel responded with a complete clearance of 134 within the second.

The Englishman went into the mid-session break with a wholesome 3-1 lead, however Brecel got here roaring again with some good play to show the tide 4-3 in his favour.

The topsy-turvy nature of the match continued as O’Sullivan gained the subsequent three frames to finish the morning session with a 6-4 lead. Brecel recorded massive breaks of 134, 75, 103 and 98 within the first session, but it surely was The Rocket who regarded nearer to profitable the £210,000 prize.

By no means underestimate a world champion, although. Brecel earned a status for pulling off outstanding comebacks when he gained the World Championship earlier this 12 months, and the Belgian threatened to carry out his occasion trick in Shanghai.

Brecel pulled the rating again to 7-7 on the mid-session interval after O’Sullivan left the again door open with a string of errors.

For a lesser participant a run of errors may need been disastrous, however that is O’Sullivan we’re speaking about. Aiming to increase his unbeaten run in Shanghai to 19 matches, the 47-year-old surged right into a 10-7 lead and only one body from profitable the title.

Cue yet one more Brecel comeback. O’Sullivan has beforehand stated that Brecel is his favorite participant to observe, and the 28-year-old confirmed precisely why by taking part in some great photographs to drag the match again to 10-9.

Nonetheless, this time Brecel wasn’t ready so as to add one other comeback to his CV. The momentum swung a number of occasions throughout a tense closing body however ultimately – having missed a match ball on the blue – O’Sullivan knocked within the pink to recover from the road.

O’Sullivan clinched the Shanghai Masters title for a fourth consecutive time, following his wins in 2017, 2018 and 2019 – with the 2020, 2021 and 2022 editions scrubbed from the calendar because of the Covid-19 pandemic.