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Richard Mann's UK Snooker Championship reflections - including Ronnie O'Sullivan and Kyren Wilson
Richard Mann reflects on Ronnie O'Sullivan's seventh UK Championship win in York while also looking ahead to the Dafabet Masters.
Long live the King
For a record seventh time at the UK Championship, Ronnie O'Sullivan was crowned champion in York and in claiming his 19th Triple Crown victory, he became the most successful player in the history of snooker.
A quarter of a century since winning this tournament for the very first time back in 1993, Ronnie O'Sullivan is the best in the business and by a colossal margin.
This year's UK Championship began with O'Sullivan raising the possibility of starting a breakaway tour, such has been his frustration at the current schedule, but it ended with the five-time world champion visibly moved after creating another piece of history and reaffirming his commitment to the sport and its fans - who have given him such loyal support over the years.
🏆🚀 The moment Ronnie O'Sullivan made yet more history in his astonishing 26-year career!
— Sporting Life (@SportingLife) December 9, 2018
👏 A record seventh UK Championship title and 19th major! #UKChampionship pic.twitter.com/EThwOQd9OQ
O'Sullivan said: "I was playing for the fans today. It's payback time - they have supported me for so long and they go through it all with me so I just need to play with a smile on my face.
"I am not setting myself any limits. I will play as many tournaments as I think I can play, whether they are big or small. It's just about playing and trying to enjoy it, because it's a fantastic sport."
Even for someone as naturally gifted as O'Sullivan, his game in York appeared to be in particularly good working order and despite his advancing years, his eyes and body show no obvious signs of decline.
His break-building was again a joy to behold and, as he closes in on a thousand career centuries, he still sets the benchmark in that department while his often underrated safety game was flawless.
These are parts of O'Sullivan's armoury that have been the cornerstone of his game over the last few years but his long potting, which was frighteningly good in Sunday's final defeat of Mark Allen, would appear to have gone to an even greater level this season and his work with new coach Steve Feeney looks to be paying dividends.
O'Sullivan maintains that this new relationship is still in its infancy but the early indications are that it could be a match made in heaven and should that be the case, he really could prove very hard to beat at next month's Dafabet Masters.
While an innate amount of natural ability has always afforded O'Sullivan a significant advantage over his peers, a beautiful cue action that is now being nurtured by Feeney's expert eye gives him all the tools needed to keep winning major tournaments.
O'Sullivan has clearly had his demons in the past, particularly early on in his career, and there is no doubt those issues affected his snooker and the the amount of success he enjoyed in those years.
However, he appears to be in a really good place mentally right now and his focus towards snooker and hunger for winning titles has never been greater.
Even at 43 years of age, he remains fiercely determined and clearly loathes losing.
The way he's going, that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
🏆👶 Ronnie O'Sullivan won his first #UKChampionship as a prodigious 17-year-old way back in 1993.
— Sporting Life (@SportingLife) December 9, 2018
🚀🙌 25 incredible years later, snooker's greatest showman lifts this prestigious trophy for a record-breaking seventh time!
'Legend' hardly does him justice! pic.twitter.com/TxWgFGhsd6
The wait for Wilson goes on
Kyren Wilson has looked a champion in waiting for some time now but while there is much to admire about the 26-year-old, the lack of a Triple Crown title is beginning to cast doubts over the assertion that he will become one of the greats players of the game.
Runner-up in last year's Masters in London and a semi-finalist at the World Championship, Wilson again knocked hard on the door when beaten by Ronnie O'Sullivan in the final of the Champions Of Champions earlier this season.
A brilliant long potter with a wonderful safety game, Wilson would appear close to the finished article and his once lapse cue-ball control has seemingly been tightened up. Watching Wilson in the balls when dismantling Barry Hawkins in York certainly suggested he is now close to the complete player.
However, having booked himself a place in the UK Championship quarter-finals with that one-sided defeat of Hawkins, and with O'Sullivan sat on the other side of the draw, Wilson fluffed his lines in the face of another golden opportunity in a Triple Crown event.
Wilson was never at the races when routed 6-1 by Stuart Bingham - a player he had beaten in each of their six previous meetings - and despite being nicknamed 'The Warrior' he seemed overawed by the opportunity in front of him.
Winning the biggest tournaments in snooker requires everything: talent, heart, desire and the ability to perform under the fiercest pressure. Potting balls will only take you so far.
While Wilson has shown plenty of that in winning two career ranking titles to date, neither came on the biggest stage of all and in York, not for the first time, he was unable to seize the moment.
Think back to his Crucible semi-final defeat to John Higgins last term. Higgins wasn't at his best in the opening session of that match but thanks to a host of errors from Wilson, still managed to lead 5-3 at its conclusion. Having gotten out of jail once, Higgins was never going to allow Wilson back into the game.
Wilson's positional play and inability to take control of that game, and possibly even the tournament, when presented with the chance cost him dear and it was a similar story in his Masters final defeat to Allen earlier in that campaign.
Much has been made of Wilson's admirable comeback against O'Sullivan in the Champions Of Champions final more recently but he trailed 6-3 after the opening session of that match and despite fighting hard, again spurned a golden chance when in the balls and seemingly set for victory.
O'Sullivan enjoyed more than his fair share of good fortune but Wilson had his chances and wasn't able to take them.
The great players don't need a second, or third, bite of the cherry. They seize the moments and grasp the opportunity when it comes their way.
Think Stephen Hendry, O'Sullivan, Higgins, even Judd Trump. All were Triple Crown winners long before Wilson's current age and until he wins a big one, let's hold off on the 'great' tag please.
Make no mistake, Wilson is a wonderful snooker player with a big future, but York felt like another missed opportunity and he has more to prove than most right now.
The wait goes on.