MILTON KEYNES: Chinese young cueist Fan Zhengyi defeated six-time world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-9 to win the European Masters Title, here on Sunday.
Fan, who was playing his first ranking title led 8-6 before Ronnie claimed two next frames and leveled at 8-8.
Fan then won the next frame to regain his lead 9-8, only for his illustrious rival to win the next frame and send the final into a decider.
The final comprising of 19 frames, followed the same pattern before the decider, with Fan pulling ahead and O’Sullivan leveling the scores.
In the decider, however, Ronnie missed on a long-red and as a result, Fan went on to compile a 92 break to win his first ranking title.
According to the BBC, Fan remarked competing against Ronnie in a final as ‘a dream come true’, while also revealing that the 46-years-old is ‘very generous’.
“I think it’s like a dream come true to play the final against Ronnie O’ Sullivan. He is always so generous to the Chinese players and [helps] them all the time,” Fan said.
Ronnie, on the other hand, playing in his 60th ranking final, called his opponent a “fantastic player”.
“Fan is a fantastic player. He played some great safety, great break building, amazing pots, and good under pressure,” Ronnie said.
“He was the better player all day and I just tried to hang on to him. He deserved his victory,” he concluded.
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