Ronnie’s mental health battle
Ronnie O’Sullivan has been candid about his mental health battle, revealing he has seen a psychiatrist during the Tour Championship.
He told ITV: “I’ve just got to commit to it [speaking to a psychiatrist] now for a good year to try to get myself out of this sort of hole I’ve got myself in mentally with the obsession of the game, tinkering.
“I know I’m never going to stop tinkering, but I have to somehow get my head strong enough to be able to deal with it and not go too deep into that horrible murky world that it is.
“Every sportsman – maybe golfers, tennis players, snooker players – I suppose we all do it, but I went so deep into that it’s like detoxing myself from it.
“It kind of felt like I’ve had the yips in a way – mentally, physically – it feels like you get scared to even want to go and play.
“That’s not a nice place to be, so I’ve got nothing left to do other than to try to get myself mentally out of it and hopefully my game will start to flow again, maybe.”
Pre-match meal
Mark Williams showed his fans he was just like Luke Littler by tucking into a kebab before his match-up with Ronnie O’Sullivan.
The family meal clearly went down well.
Respect
The respect between these two is there to see.
Before proceedings, O’Sullivan and Williams shared a fist bump.
And it’s a close encounter in the final. Who will prevail when the evening sessions resumes at around 7pm.
Rocket by name…
Incredibly, Rocket Ronnie won the last four frames in astonishing amount of time.
It took the legend just 37 minutes.
That included breaks of 102, 127, and 121,
He’s not wasting any time.
Tale of the first session
Here’s how the first eight frame’s of today’s final panned out.
Frame 1 – Williams, 73-29 (66)
Frame 2 – O’Sullivan, 107-10
Frame 3 – Williams, 91-6 (91)
Frame 4 – Williams, 137-0 (66,67)
Frame 5 – O’Sullivan, 102-0 (102)
Frame 6 – O’Sullivan, 127-0 (127)
Frame 7 – O’Sullivan, 78-1 (59)
Frame 8 – O’Sullivan, 121-1 (121)