Neil Robertson wins the 2021 Tour Championship
The 2021 Tour Championship was played in Celtic Manor, behind closed doors, from 22 to 28 March 2021.
Neil Robertson beat Ronnie O’Sullivan by 10-4 in the Final to win his 20th ranking title, moving one ahead of Mark Selby. With this win, Neil also became the “Cazoo Cup” 2021 Champion. This was the first time that Neil had managed to beat Ronnie in a multi-session match.
The first session was shared. Both were playing well enough, and although Neil was the better player, it didn’t show in the scores; Neil lead 4-2 but was pegged back to 4-4. Both had three breaks over 50, including two centuries each: 128 and 133 for Ronnie, 103 and 133 for Neil. At that point, all the signs were pointing towards a close match and a late finish.
The evening session though was completely different. Neil stepped up a gear, or two … or three, whilst Ronnie’s level dipped and, being kept cold in his chair didn’t help him. Neil was relentless, he scored breaks of 93, 75, 123, 119, and 114, restricting his opponent to a mere 26 points over the entire session.
Neil Robertson was obviously happy with his performance and the state of his game ahead of the Crucible: “Considering the opposition, it is the best I’ve played in a final. The Champion of Champions final with Judd Trump was up there, but that was a more complete performance. I didn’t really miss anything in the whole match. It is very pleasing knowing I’m capable of doing that going into the World Championship. I was just in the zone from the get go. It was somewhat made easier because I knew my preparation was really good. This week it was all about putting a lot of things in place so I could have the best chance of winning the World Championship as possible. That was about playing every match and session on my terms. It’s only going to motivate Ronnie more in the World Championship. He is going to be going there so determined. He may not say it, but that is going to really annoy him and fire him up. I feel sorry for whoever he is going to play in the first couple of rounds.”
Ahead of his first match, Neil had given this very emotional interview, explaining how hard it had been for him to be unable to see his family for nearly two years, and how much it mattered to him to be reunited with his father: it gave him a huge motivation ahead of the coming World Championship.
Jack Lisowski and Judd Trump were the other two Grove players involved in the eighth men event. Both lost in the first round.
All detailed results are available on snooker.org
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