O´Sullivan wins record seventh Masters title

LONDON: Snooker great Ronnie O´Sullivan won a record seventh Masters title after beating Joe Perry 10-7 in an all-English final at London´s Alexandra Palace on Sunday.

Victory saw O´Sullivan surpass the record of six Masters titles he had shared previously with Stephen Hendry.

O´Sullivan, a five-times world champion, may have been both the fans´ and the bookmakers´ favourite but the 41-year-old still had to come 4-1 down to defeat Perry.

Perry, who came from 5-2 down to beat Barry Hawkins, last year´s runner-up, 6-5 in the semi-finals was proud at proving he could still be a force in the game after appearing in his first final of a ´Triple Crown´ event -- the World Championship, the UK Championship and the Masters -- at the age of 42.

O´Sullivan struggled in the early stages before, with Perry starting to miss important points, he ended the afternoon session all square a 4-4 following breaks of 42, 44 and 55.

O´Sullivan started the evening´s play the stronger, winning the session´s first four frames to make it seven in a row in all, including a break of 85 in the 12th.

Perry staunched the flow of frames against him with an impressive break of 117 and then closed to within two thanks to a contribution of 92.

O´Sullivan then moved to within a frame of victory courtesy of a clearance of 112 only to miss a routine black as Perry took the 16th frame.

Perry was 39-0 up in the next but O´Sullivan recovered to seal victory.