O\u2019Sullivan shrugged off his loss and revealed he had booked a flight back to his base in Ireland for Monday morning having been so convinced before their high-profile showdown that he was set to lose the match with a session to spare.<\/p>\n
![\"SHEFFIELD,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0024494b-614.jpg\"\/)
\nJohn Higgins (L) completed a sensational comeback<\/p>\n
“I\u2019ve got to be honest with you, I had a flight booked home early this morning because I wasn\u2019t sure if I\u2019d get to the third session before the match started,” said O\u2019Sullivan, who has played sporadically on the circuit this season.<\/p>\n
“I was realistic about my chances. I haven\u2019t been in any big matches for two years. Playing the top boys in a real pressure situation now, I knew it was going to kind of expose me in some sort of way. I was really shocked that I was able to make a game of it, to be honest with you.”<\/p>\n
Remarkably, it was Higgins who looked more likely to exit the tournament without the need for a Monday session, after looking distinctly out of sorts in the early stages, trailing 8-3 then 9-4 and looking bereft of his usual battling qualities.<\/p>\n
But he forced a rare show of frustration from O\u2019Sullivan as he chipped back to a 9-7 overnight deficit, and turned on the style in the final session by firing three centuries en route to completing one of the most memorable wins of his career.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s got to be up there,” said Higgins. “I\u2019m just delighted I came to the party in the third session, because after the first two sessions, how I was only 9-7 behind, I\u2019ll never know. Ronnie was by far the better player.<\/p>\n
“The atmosphere was incredible. I\u2019ll be honest, the ovation we got walking in there, it threw me. I just felt like I was like a rabbit in the headlights a little bit, and I think Ronnie could thrive off that and just settled down straight away.”<\/p>\n
O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s chances of regaining the ascendency on Morning afternoon took an early hit when he broke down on a mid-range red in the opening frame and Higgins showed he was up for the fight by taking the frame with a break of 58.<\/p>\n
Successive centuries shunted the Scot in front for the first time at 10-9, but O\u2019Sullivan slugged straight back with a coolly-dispatched 62 to haul level, before a brilliant 93 with the black out of commission suggested the favourite was back on course for victory.<\/p>\n
Higgins responded with his third century of the session and the pair split breaks in excess of 80 to set up a nerve-racking decider. Both had early chances but it was Higgins who grasped his at the second attempt to record a famous win.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Sullivan insisted he was “shocked” to have taken it to the brink, adding: “When I was 6-2 up after the first session, I said to my mate ‘I can\u2019t work this out\u2019. I felt like I played OK, and 9-7 up after two sessions, I thought, \u2018OK, cool\u2019.<\/p>\n
“But John played great today and I tried to hang onto him. I just couldn\u2019t get the job done. I had a chance in the last and was probably a little bit unlucky going into the pack. I left myself a difficult red and I missed. What can you do?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ronnie O’Sullivan admitted he got what he deserved after seeing his bid for a record-breaking eighth Crucible crown…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-420373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}