Neil Robertson ruled the roost at Ricoh Arena this evening after claiming the 2015 188BET Champion of Champions title, writes Ziad Chaudry.
Watched by snooker regular and Coventry City fan Brian Wright, along with a good number of other fellow Sky Blues fans amongst the audience, the 33-year-old world number three from Melbourne, Australia produced his dominance early and towards to end for a fairly convincing 10 frames to 5 victory over Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen.
The Melbourne Machine built up an 8-3 lead, which included a 114 break in frame 4, and looked well on course to reaching the winning 10 frame mark.
But ‘The Pistol’ from Antrim claimed the next two frames, including a break of 112 unanswered points in frame 13.
That proved to be some consolation for the 29-year-old as Robertson finally claimed the two frames he required for victory.
In that winning frame Robertson cleared from yellow to blue to clinch the £100,000 first prize.
“The support all week has been wonderful and this tournament is a real challenger as our fourth major of the season, it is absolutely amazing,” said Robertson, the newly crowned Champion of Champions,
“You have to win tournaments to get here, it is a brilliant tournament and conditions were wonderful.
“Commiserations to Mark, he has had a great week but he just wasn’t quite at his best today and didn’t have the luck either.
“My long game was really good and against Joe Perry I don’t think I can pot the balls any better than I did an I knew if I improved on some of the minor mistakes I would have a very good chance today.
“I started off and first session I played really, really well, second session was a bit tighter and overall I was really happy.
“This is the first major title I have picked up in over 12 months now so it is nice to be able to break the duck there and now I can move on for the rest of the season.
“Frame 14 was absolutely huge. Mark was playing the better safety and was creating the chances. I played a really good shot on the blue and happened to snooker him which was a bit fortunate and thankfully he couldn’t have left the balls any better. I was relieved to get to nine while he was still on five because had he got to seven or eight then anything could have happened.”
Robertson was especially pleased to have picked up the title with son Alexander in attendance.
“I said not to come until I looked like winning because I brought him up for the final of the Masters and Shaun Murphy beat me 10-2,” he laughed.
“It is a great moment and all his friends at school I am sure will be looking at it and maybe be a bit jealous.”
A disappointed Allen reflected: “He (Neil) played very, very well in spells and showed why he is a former world champion and former world number one. I am disappointed with the way I played myself, I had more than enough chances in different parts of the match but I just wasn’t up to it today.
“I was nervous from the first frame and never settled down really and I got what I deserved.
“You have to be at your very best if you are going to compete with the likes of Neil. I said last week I thought Neil was the best all-round player in the world and he showed that in spells today. People like Neil drive me on to get better and I will go straight back to the practice table and I will get better.
He added: “There are lots of positives to take from the last nine days, I wasn’t even in this event a week ago. The support I have had this week has been fantastic. This is what we play snooker for, to play in big arenas, packed out and have lots of support."
Pictures courtesy of Matchroom Sport.