Neil Robertson takes final semi-final spot in Premier League
Reigning world champion Neil Robertson sealed his place in the snooker Premier League semi-finals in dramatic fashion last night.
The Australian was relying on Ronnie O’Sullivan to beat Mark Selby in the first game to give him a chance to go through should he beat Shaun Murphy in the second match of the evening.
Selby needed a point to send him through to the play-offs, but he came up against a superb O’Sullivan, who destroyed him 5-1. If Selby had made the score 4-2, he would have been the player to go through if Robertson didn’t win 5-1 or 6-0.
With O’Sullivan doing Robertson a major favour, the world No.1 had the situation in his own hands, and he came out all guns blazing against the current Premier League champion Murphy, who had already qualified for the semi-finals, and beat him 4-2 to just make it into next weekend’s finals.
O’Sullivan was on fire last week against Robertson, and once again he produced some of his very best snooker. With O’Sullivan already through, many thought he would treat his match against Selby like an exhibition, but in O’Sullivan’s mind there was a score to settle.
He wanted to avenge the Masters final defeat Selby inflicted on him at the start of the year, and he wanted to put an end to Selby’s hopes of reaching the latter stages.
Selby looked like he was going to take the opening frame when he went 49-0 up, but a miss on the blue gave O’Sullivan the chance to get back into the frame. O’Sullivan knocked in a 56 but also missed the blue. However, he still managed to take the frame.
O’Sullivan was on course for a 147 maximum in the second frame, but broke down, and Selby was given a route back into the frame. When Selby put O’Sullivan in a snooker, it took an outrageous fluke from O’Sullivan to get out of it, as he potted the yellow and had perfect position on the green to eventually take a 2-0 lead.
O’Sullivan piled the pressure on Selby as a break of 80 put him 3-0 up. The Rocket was close to going 4-0 up, but Selby got off the mark to take the frame, albeit in controversial circumstances. When O’Sullivan had attempted to get out of a snooker several times, he decided to just hit the wrong ball on purpose until Selby had accumulated enough points to win the frame. O’Sullivan was protesting about the “foul and a miss” rule, hence the roll up deliberately to another ball.
O’Sullivan’s actions fired up one man, and that was himself, as he made a superb break of 116 to take the two points for the win.
Selby needed to win the last frame to stand any chance of qualifying, and when O’Sullivan went 55-0, he was hanging on by a thread. O’Sullivan then missed frame ball, and Selby worked his way back into the frame. All Selby needed was to pot the final black to force a re-spotted black, but he missed, and when O’Sullivan potted it himself, Selby’s campaign was over.
“I knew what was at stake for Mark in that last frame,” said O’Sullivan, who was the only player to remain unbeaten in the group phase of the competition. “It makes you more nervous when you know there is someone [Williams] sitting at home going 'Come on Ronnie'. There's a lot of pressure on you and you turn to jelly.”
So with O’Sullivan now on Robertson’s Christmas card list, it was now up to Robertson to do the second part of the job. Things didn’t start off too well for him, as he only turned up to the arena about 20 minutes from the start of his game.
Murphy took a scrappy opening frame, but Robertson replied in style with breaks of 67 and a brilliant 116 to go 2-1 up. The second century of the match also came courtesy of Murphy, but he missed the green on 98. The main thing was he levelled to make it a tense finale for Robertson.
Robertson showed his true class, and he moved to within one frame of the victory he needed by making a 124. Now the situation was simple. If Murphy won the final frame of the night, Robertson would be out, and if Robertson won it he would be through.
Robertson missed the frame-winning red after a break of 52, but it didn’t cost him, and he sealed his place in the semi-finals, when it didn’t look likely at all.
“This is a big wake-up call for me and I can’t ever do it again with this bad preparation,” said a relieved but delighted Robertson. “I think it shouldn’t take to being in this position for me to produce my best performance ever in the Premier League.
“In some ways I didn’t deserve to get through due to my preparation. I’m delighted to have got through but this will give me a kick up the backside,” he added.
After a thrilling conclusion to the round-robin format, next week’s semi-finals will see O’Sullivan taking on Robertson, and Murphy playing Marco Fu.
Tags: