RONNIE O’SULLIVAN stormed to his record seventh Masters title last night.
The Rocket beat Joe Perry 10-7 at Alexandra Palace after a scintillating seven-frame burst.
O’Sullivan paid tribute to the late Paul Hunter, saying: “I won the Paul Hunter Classic in Germany and that meant so much to me, but a player of Paul’s stature and what he did for the game, especially this tournament – he deserves to have his name on this tournament.
“He will never be forgotten, all the players loved him. You are there in our hearts and minds and we all love you.”
Of his own achievement, O’Sullivan said: “It’s great to get some records and there is still the World Championships to get so I will try to get that one off him (Hendry) as well. But when I was young, I was happy to have won one so to have won seven so there must be someone up there looking after me.
“I am not greedy, I appreciate every opportunity I get to come and play in front of these fantastic people so I am happy to be here.”
Perry had led 4-1 until O’Sullivan, 41, roared back to pocket the £200,000 prize and edge ahead of Stephen Hendry’s six Masters crowns.
And Alan Hunter — dad of three-time Masters champ Paul, who died from a rare form of cancer ten years ago aged just 27 — handed over the re-named Paul Hunter Trophy. Five-time world champion O’Sullivan is now also within one at 17 of another Hendry record — 18 titles from the three Majors.
Perry, 42, one of snooker’s late bloomers, was gunning here for his first Major title — one of the Triple Crown events comprising the Masters, World Championship and the UK Championship.
But a missed red going for a 5-1 lead was to come back and haunt him.
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O’Sullivan went into the final as a red-hot favourite after his brilliant semi-final win over in-form Marco Fu.
But if the script called for Perry rolling over for the Rocket and going quietly, then he clearly had not read it.
Playing near his best against Fu had not stopped O’Sullivan lashing out at referee Terry Camilleri and calling a photographer a “f*****g nightmare”.
And he found more distractions yesterday, moaning about the noise of balls from a nearby practice table.
This turned out to be Hendry recreating his 1990s Crucible finals with pal Jimmy White.
Perry cashed in with a break of 72 and then doubled his lead in the next with a run of 53.
O’Sullivan, who still did not look totally at ease with his new cue tip, got on the board in the next with a 53 break.
But runs of 74 and 115 put Arsenal fan Perry — born just down the road from Ally Pally before moving to Cambridge- shire — firmly in the driving seat.
But that missed red in frame six and failing to pot a key black two frames later allowed his opponent to level at 4-4 at the end of the afternoon.
Three-times champ Steve Davis, sitting in the BBC studio, said: “You let a big fish off the hook, sometimes you never see him again.”
And Davis was spot-on as O’Sullivan reeled off the first four frames of the night to make it seven in a row for an 8-4 lead.
Perry twice cut the lead to two with the help of a 112 break, but O’Sullivan took the 17th frame to seal it.
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