Kyren Wilson has admitted he cannot continue to rely on flukes to win his first world crown – but Ronnie O’Sullivan has other ideas ahead of the start of their intriguing Crucible final on Saturday.
Wilson and O’Sullivan both emerged from epic semi-final deciders to reach the final, with Wilson benefiting from an outrageous, three-cushion fluke on the green to see him past Anthony McGill.
In contrast O’Sullivan riled opponent Mark Selby by deliberately blasting at a series of snookers and safety shots – and he predicts his tactic could continue to spread around the game.
Wilson said “You can’t just rely on luck to get you a world crown and, whoever I play in the final, I’ve got to produce great snooker and I’m not going to get there by fluking balls.
“I can go out and enjoy the occasion and give it my all. I’m going in there to win the world title, but to have the pressure on the other guy hopefully plays in my favour.”
O’Sullivan looked down and out against Selby when he ended a spell of safety play by lashing at the pink towards the end of the 30th frame, effectively falling 16-14 behind in the process.
But he responded with a stunning pair of quickfire breaks to haul level before edging Selby in a safety battle to book his place in his seventh Crucible final and his first since 2014.
O’Sullivan, who had watched McGill fail to get out of a snooker eight times in a row in the earlier semi-final, said: “I haven’t got a clue about getting out of snookers – I don’t want to give 40 points away so I’d rather just go for the fluke.”
An astonishing day of semi-finals ended with O’Sullivan fending off allegations of disrespect from Selby, insisting: “He’s just feeling a little bit sore at the moment. It’s the semi-final of the World Championship and I understand that.”
And it set up a final between the 44-year-old O’Sullivan and a young player who knocked out defending champion Judd Trump and has long believed a world title is his destiny.
O’Sullivan joked: “I’m old enough to be his dad I shouldn’t be here really – I’m 44 with no cue action.”
