The Rocket comes back to punish Stuart Bingham

After what can only be described as an epic semi-final, the entire crowd at the Barbican Centre were able to breathe a sigh of relief after Ronnie O’Sullivan staged a superb comeback to beat Stuart Bingham 6-5. Although you could hear a pin drop in the arena, huge tension permeated the atmosphere.

Crowds gasped as O’Sullivan struggled to gain momentum, going 4-1 down. But in true Rocket fashion, he fought back off the ropes to book his place in tomorrow’s final. Having been to countless football, golf and darts tournaments, nothing, with the exception of an All-Ireland football final, has matched the excitement in the arena today. O’Sullivan himself even said, “If that was a boxing match, they would have stopped it early”.

In the press conference, O’Sullivan looked like a different man to the one we seen two nights ago when he made a 147 maximum break. ‘I’m being ultra critical here: I’m in the final of the Coral UK Championship and I won the last tournament. But I’ve always been like that and it’s difficult to paint a rosy picture because I want more, I’m greedy.’ It is that greed that we want to see tomorrow, and the more the Rocket dominates the better it is for snooker.

With the assumption that Judd Trump beats Stephen Maguire tonight, snooker fans will be treated to the final they all wanted. Ronnie remains the odds-on favourite at 4-7 to win the Coral UK Championship, while Trump will be around 9-4. If it’s anything like today’s action, it will be a compelling final not to be missed.