Rocket Breaks Speed Record in Northern Ireland Semi
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In the fastest best-of-11 match on record, Ronnie O'Sullivan (England) produced an astonishing performance to reach the final of the Northern Ireland Trophy.
The Rocket powered his way to a stunning 6-0 victory over hapless Welshman Dominic Dale (Wales) at the Waterfront Hall.
The two-times world champion took just 52min 47 sec to triumph, bettering Stephen Hendry’s 6-0 semi-final win over Dave Harold at the 1993 International Open in Plymouth in 71 minutes.
He rattled home eight breaks over 60 within six frames - 65, 64, 84, 75, 63, 67, 106 and 63. The Chigwell star outscored his opponent by 608 points to 29.
O’Sullivan has now won 11 consecutive frames in the Belfast event inside 100 minutes, with three centuries and ten other breaks over 50.
He will face Ding Junhui or Stephen Lee over 17 frames in the final tomorrow.
"I’m very conscious that snooker needs to be watched and enjoyed," said an upbeat O’Sullivan, the world No 3 chasing his first ranking title since the Irish Masters 17 months ago.
"I’m sacrificing match-play because it’s all about getting bums on seats. I’m going to play like that all the time as it keeps me enthusiastic.
"Snooker is a big sport. You open the papers and see three pages on cricket and that’s not right - snooker is at least on a par with cricket.
"There are plenty of characters in this sport, with the likes of Stephen Hendry, Mark Williams, Shaun Murphy and John Higgins. People want to see exciting matches and I want to see players attacking rather than getting bogged down."
O’Sullivan gave away the cue that won him two world titles at the end of last season but has adapted immediately to his new model.
"I got John Parris to make me six cues. Four of them were not what I wanted but the one I’ve got is spot on. I’ve only had it for three or four weeks.
"To be honest a cue is not that important. We could play with broomhandles."
World No 40 Dale, who was aiming for his second ranking final, said: "That was the perfect performance from Ronnie. You can’t play better snooker than that."
The other Semi Final is played this evening.
Source
- Global Snooker Centre
- World Snooker
- 2006 Northern Ireland Trophy (on ArmchairGM)
Date
Sat 08/19/06, 8:07 am EST
