Ronnie O’Sullivan has beaten Ali Carter 18-11 to secure his fourth World Championship title at the Crucible.

O’Sullivan, 36, resumed the day 10-7 ahead and took the first four frames, including a quick-fire break of 101, his 12th century of the tournament.

Carter looked a beaten man but rallied to win three frames in a row and take the match into a final session.

But Carter won only one more frame as the unstoppable O’Sullivan wrapped up proceedings in a little under an hour.

O’Sullivan, who had talked about retiring after his semi-final win, immediately announced his intention to take a six-month sabbatical from the game.

“A few people doubted me but I’ll let them know when I’m not ready,” the Englishman told BBC Sport. “I certainly haven’t gone yet.

“I am going to enjoy my time off with my family and then assess the situation, but it’s all good and I want to enjoy the moment.”

O’Sullivan was delighted to share his triumph with his young son, Ronnie Jr, who joined his dad in the arena after victory had been clinched.

“It was the best. I didn’t think I’d ever get the opportunity to share those moments with him so it was so nice to have him here,” he added.

“I got a bit emotional before the match was over, it felt like just me and him in the whole arena. There was just this massive connection between me and him, the best feeling I’ve ever had in my life.”

Carter, now a two-time runner-up, joked that he would win the title once his fellow Essex player had retired. “The better man won. He’s a genius. It’s the Ronnie O’Sullivan show, isn’t it?

“I’m pleased for the game that he’s carrying on playing. He’s got so much more to give.”

O’Sullivan, whose previous titles came in 2001, 2004 and 2008, is the oldest winner since his former mentor Ray Reardon claimed his sixth crown in 1978 at the age of 45.

He joins last year’s champion John Higgins on four titles and only Steve Davis and Ray Reardon, with six titles apiece, and seven-time winner Stephen Hendry, have lifted the trophy more times in the modern era.

O’Sullivan’s victory, which earned him a cheque for £255,000, secured his position as second seed in all of next season’s ranking events and his break from the game will not affect his ranking.

The final was a repeat of 2008, when O’Sullivan won 18-8, one of 11 victories over Carter in as many previous meetings in ranking events.

And while Carter’s obdurate displays before the final suggested he would be a tougher nut to crack than four years ago, O’Sullivan, who demonstrated unerring focus throughout the tournament, simply had too much poise and too much class.

O’Sullivan was even suffering from food poisoning on Sunday, but that did not stop him registering a break of 141 during the first session – the highest in World Championship final history.

He appeared to have shaken off the effects of his illness before Monday’s opener, rattling in his third century-break of the match to stretch his lead to four frames.

Carter missed a relatively straightforward pink to hand his fellow Essex player the next frame, and the next two frames followed a similar pattern.

In the next, Carter had three chances to secure the frame but missed them all, before the 32-year-old, with only the colours to clear, missed two attempts at the yellow to allow O’Sullivan to surge into a 14-7 lead.

At that stage it looked like O’Sullivan might win the match with a session to spare, but Carter avoided that ignominy, returning after the mid-session interval to take a scrappy frame before raising his arms in mock triumph.

Having steadied the ship, Carter compiled a battling 105, his first century break of the final, before reducing the gap to four courtesy of a break of 53. But O’Sullivan refocused, making a run of 64 to lead by five frames.

After the restart, O’Sullivan demonstrated his superior safety game once again, waiting for Carter to make a mistake before taking the frame with a run of 70.

Carter took the next, capitalising on a missed black by his opponent to chisel out a frame-winning break of 64, only for O’Sullivan to hit back, moving to within one frame of the title with breaks of 26 and 46 after some errant safety play from Carter.

And O’Sullivan wrapped up proceedings in the next, launching into his final assault on the world title with a thin cut to the middle which culminated in a match-winning break of 61.

Result: Ronnie O’Sullivan [14] 18 – 11 Allister Carter [13]
First session: 77-37 (56), 121-1 (117), 0-85 (84) 24-58, 86-42 (52), 2-55, 108-0 (92), 141-0 (141)
Second session: 8-84 (56), 70-21, 69-14 (68), 30-62 73-7, 60-13, 1-83 (59), 74-34 (62), 3-52
Third session: 101-0 (101), 73-12, 62-48, 81-41 (54) 9-59, 34-105 (105), 5-62 (53), 129-4 (64, 55)
Fourth session: 92-0 (70), 9-78 (64), 76-0, 82-0 (61)

Other matches involving Grove players:

Semi-Finals: Ronnie O’Sullivan 17-10 Matthew Stevens

Quarter Finals: Ronnie O’Sullivan 13-10 Neil Robertson

Round 2: Ali Carter 13-12 Judd Trump, Ronnie O’Sullivan 13-6 Mark Williams

Round 1: John Higgins 10-9 Liang Wenbo, Stephen Hendry 10-4 Stuart Bingham, Judd Trump 10-7 Dominic Dale, Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-4 Peter Ebdon

Qualifying:

Judd Trump and Ronnie O’Sullivan will be joined in the last 32 of this year’s event by fellow Grove player Liang Wenbo.

Wenbo made it through to the Crucible after defeating Marcus Campbell 10-9 and Justin Astley 10-3 in qualifying.

Yu Delu almost joined him, making it through to the final qualifying round after wins against Matthew Selt 10-5, Michael White 10-2 and Patrick Wallace 10-9, but was defeated by Stephen Hendry 6-10.

Jack Lisowski lost in qualifying round 6 to Alfie Burden 3-10 and Liu Song was defeated in round 5, 9-10 by Igor Figuerido.

Wenbo started in round 3 and beat fellow China player Xiao Guodong 5-2 before losing 0-5 to Peter Ebdon. Jack also started at the same stage and beat Dave Harold 5-3 before a defeat to Dominic Dale 2-5.

Delu came through there qualifying rounds, defeating Kacper Filipiak 5-0, Mark Joyce 5-2 and Jamie Burnett 5-1 before losing 1-5 against Stephen Hendry in the final qualifying round.

Liu Song lost 1-5 to Sam Craigie in round two. The China Open starts on 26 March in Beijing and Grove players Judd Trump, Ronnie O’Sullivan and Stuart Bingham will be taking part in the first round.

Ronnie started in round 1 with a 4-1 win against Marco Fu and followed this up with a win by the same scoreline against Mark Williams. Ronnie then met fellow Grove player Judd Trump in the quarter finals and in an exciting match managed to edge Judd 5-3. However the effects of his illness got the better of him and he lost 2-6 in the semi-finals to Mark Selby.

Judd started with a 4-0 win against Fergal O’Brien and a 4-1 victory over Grove player Stuart Bingham, who had beaten Mark King 4-2 in the first round.

Liang Wenbo reached the final stages of a major ranking event for the first time this season after two 4-1 victories in qualifying over David Gilbert and Rory McLeod. However he had a tough first round draw against John Higgins and was defeated 1-4.

Yu Delu started with a 4-0 win against Luca Brecel but then lost 2-4 to Anthony McGill.

Jack Lisowski lost 2-4 to Adam Duffy in the third qualifying round. Liu Song was defeated in the second qualifying round 3-4 against Adam Wicheard.

Fittingly, for an event with a new Chinese sponsor, the trophy went to Ding Junhui who beat Selby 6-2 in the final.

O’Sullivan hit 111 to win the opening frame but scored only 13 points in the next three as Maguire’s 130, 106 and 128 gave him a 3-1 interval lead.

The last four afternoon frames were shared to give the Scotsman a 5-3 lead.

O’Sullivan, who was within one ball of defeat in the first round, moved 8-6 ahead and duly completed a fine win.

The 36-year-old, who has been playing despite suffering from glandular fever symptoms, had slipped to 16th in the world rankings at the start of the tournament and was in danger of falling outside of the elite group for the first time since he was a teenager.

Had he done so he would not have been granted an automatic place at the World Championship, an event he has won on three occasions, and would have faced a gruelling series of qualifying matches.

He seemed set to lose the final after Maguire extended his lead by winning the first frame after the interval following breaks of 46 and 69.

Maguire was also well placed in the next, but after compiling a 40 he later attempted a difficult red into the centre which allowed O’Sullivan back in, The Rocket took advantage and rattled in a clearance of 89.

O’Sullivan levelled after a fluctuating 12th frame and a break of 67 put him ahead for the first time since the opening frame.

After falling two frames behind, Maguire knocked in a clearance of 82 to keep the match alive but O’Sullivan responded with a 46 in the next, but after fluking a red to leave his opponent needing snookers, went in-off following an escape.

However, Maguire missed with an attempt at a difficult long blue, leaving a grateful O’Sullivan the chance to pot the winning balls.

“I’m coming to the end of my career so every victory now is nice,” O’Sullivan said after collecting the trophy. “If I can nick a tournament here or there it’s great – it would be nice to go out at the top.

“This is the best venue we play in on the tour. It used to be Wembley Conference Centre… but it’s brilliant to play here and get to the final.

“All credit to Stephen, because he’s had a great tournament.

“He’s played really well and is playing as well now as when he first came on the scene and I tipped him to be the dominant player of the decade.

“He outplayed me today, I hung in there and nicked frames.”

Maguire, whose last title remains the 2008 China Open, said: “I should have made it 7-5 but I played a bad positional shot and when it went 6-6 he had the rhythm – I think that was the turning point in the match.

“I’ve beaten some good players this week and if I’m honest I probably wasn’t expecting to get to the final – but I can’t look at it that way now… I just want to jump off a bridge.”

Ronnie started the tournament by playing Andrew Higginson in an astonishing match which saw Ronnie lose the first 4 frames only to turn his form around and run out 5-4 winner. He then went on to reach the last eight with a 5-1 win against Joe Perry and then progressed to the last four with a 5-3 win against Matthew Stevens. He then beat Stephen Lee 6-4 in the semi-final to set up his final clash against Maguire.

Judd Trump started his campaign with a 5-1 win against Paul Davison and followed this up with a 5-2 win over Mark Allen to reach the last eight, but was then defeated 4-5 by Stephen Maguire.

Stuart Bingham also started with a win, beating former world champion Peter Ebdon 5-3 but then lost 2-5 to Mark Williams in round two.

Yu Delu and Liu Song successfully negotiated their way through the wildcard round, beating Chris Norbury 5-3 and Soner Sari 5-0 respectively.

Delu then went on to play Ding Junhui in the first round proper and notched up a fantastic win over the world no 9, beating him 5-3. However he was unable to reach the third round after a 2-5 defeat to Stephen Lee late on Thursday night.

Liu Song had a tough opponent in the last 32 in Mark Selby and was defeated 0-5.

Grove newcomer Liang Wenbo had the best run, beating Andrew Higginson 74-9 and Matthew Stevens 54-0 before losing to Barry Pinches 41-43 in the last 16.

Judd Trump had a tough first-round draw against world champion John Higgins, losing 16-62. Jack Lisowski also had a tough draw against Stephen Hendry and lost 29-79.

Two Grove players, Stuart Bingham and Liu Song, met in the first round with Stuart winning 77-22. Stuart then fell at the next hurdle to Jamie Jones 8-78.

Wednesday:

Yu Delu made it through after being fellow Chinese player Cao Yupeng 5-2. This included a break of 136 from Delu.

Thursday:

Yu Delu enjoyed another 5-2 win against world no 65 Andy Hicks. Liu Song bowed out at his first attempt after a 4-5 defeat to Thailand’s Dechawat Poomjaeng.

Friday:

Jack Lisowski entered at the last 64 stage but lost 1-5 to an inspired Alfie Burden.

Liang Wenbo also entered at this stage, defeating Michael White 5-4, while Yu Delu enjoyed a third win, this time 5-1 over world no 45 Alan McManus.

Saturday:

Both Liang Wenbo and Yu Delu attempted to reach the final stages of the World Open with a victory in the final qualifying round.

Wenbo fought back from falling 0-3 down against Mark King but eventually lost 4-5.

Delu wasn’t able to make it 4 wins out of 4, losing 3-5 to Andrew Higginson who, with a world ranking of 19, is ranked 53 places above Delu.

Grove players Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump and Stuart Bingham will be playing in the final stages in Hainan, starting 27 February.

PTC11:

Judd Trump’s good form continued after winning his first three matches, against Sam Baird 4-0, David Morris 4-0 and Alan McManus 4-2. On Monday morning he defeated Jamie Cope 4-0 for a place in the quarter finals against Tom Ford, but was then defeated 1-4 by Tom Ford.

Yu Delu joined him after getting through tthe first three rounds with three 4-1 wins, against Andrew Norman, Dechawat Poomjaeng and Jamie Burnett. However he was then defeated in the fourth round 0-4, again by Tom Ford.

Zhang Anda and Chen Zhe both came through the pre-qualifying stage, both winning 4-1 against Mitchell Travis and Brandon Winstone respectively. Anda then lost his first match in the main draw to Craig Steadman, 2-4. Chen Zhe had a much better run, with two great wins against Kyren Wilson 4-0 and world number 41 Matthew Selt 4-1 before being edged 3-4 in round 3 by Simon Bedford.

Liang Wenbo won his first match 4-2 against Stuart Carrington but was the beaten 0-4 by Simon Bedford.

Jack Lisowski was defeated 2-4 in his first round match against David Grace and Liu Song lost his first match by the same scoreline to Alan McManus. Stuart Bingham had a tough first round draw, losing 2-4 to Mark Williams.

PTC12:

Zhang Anda enjoyed a great win against world no 43 Jamie Burnett 4-1 in round one but was then defeated in round two by world no 11 Stephen Maguire.

Jack Lisowski also had a 4-1 win in round one, against Andrew Norman and followed this up with a win by the same scoreline against Joe Jogia, but was not able to take his place in the last 16 after a 2-4 defeat to Kurt Maflin.

Liang Wenbo started with a 4-2 win against Aditya Mehta and followed this up with another 4-2 win against Duane Jones, but was then beaten 1-4 by Mike Dunn in round three.

Stuart Bingham beat Sam Harvey 4-0 in but was then defeated 3-4 by Matthew Stevens in round two.

Liu Song lost 3-4 to Rickey Walden and Chen Zhe last 2-4 to Mark Joyce.

Yu Delu started with a 4-1 win against Sam Harvey but then lost by the same scoreline to world no 2 Mark Williams in the second round.

Stuart Bingham made it into round 2 with a 4-2 win against Stuart Carrington but was then defeated 3-4 by Andrew Norman. Jack Lisowski beat Sam Craigie 4-1 but then lost 2-4 to world no 1 Mark Selby. Judd Trump lost a tight game against Tian Pengfei in round one, 3-4. Ronnie O’Sullivan was defeated in the first round 4-2 against Sam Baird.

Chen Zhe started well with a 4-0 win against Rogelio Esterio in qualifying round 2 but was then defeated 1-4 by Ali Carter in the first round proper. Zhang Anda also started with a win in qualifying round 2, 4-2 against Mitchell Travis, but then lost 2-4 to Stephen Maguire in the last 128.

Delu qualified for a ranking event for the first time with a 5-3 success against Jamie Cope, top scoring with 100 and 78. He had beatedn Alfie Burden 5-2 and Barry Pinches 5-4 in the previous qualifying rounds.

Song booked his place with a 5-4 win against Fergal O’Brien, which followed victories against Rory McLeod 5-3 and Liam Highfield 5-3.

Sadly Jack Lisowski wasn’t able to join them as he crashed out 1-5 to Sam Craigie in his first match.

Delu and Song join four other Grove players – Judd Trump, Ronnie O’Sullivan, Jack Lisowski and Stuart Bingham – in the last 32, taking place in Berlin from 1-5 February.

Picture: Monique Limbos

Judd won a high-quality final which saw seven frames played in just over an hour and ten minutes. Judd knocked in breaks of 68, 69 and 69 to go 3-1 up but Ronnie came back with two breaks of 118 and 132. Judd was fortunate to win the last frame after a fluked red but there can be no question that he deserved his victory overall.

Judd made it through to the final after six straight wins, against Martin O’Donnell 4-1, Craig Steadman 4-2, Jimmy White 4-3, Tom Ford 4-0, John Higgins 4-2 and Martin Gould 4-1. Ronnie also enjoyed six straight wins, against Anthony Hamilton 4-0, Adam Wicheard 4-1, Andrew Norman 4-0, Stephen Lee 4-2, Neil Robertson 4-1 and Graeme Dott 4-1.

The tournament also saw Ronnie and Judd rise to numbers 1 and 2 respectively in the PTC Order of Merit.

Of the other Grove players, Jack Liswoski had a great event too, making the quarter finals after starting with a good 4-2 win against world no 25 Marcus Campbell, and then beating Liu Song 4-1, Andrew Pagett 4-2 and David Morris 4-0 before losing to world no 10 Graeme Dott 2-4. Fellow Grove player Liu Song was unfortunate to meet Jack in the second round after enjoying an excellent first round victory against world no 26 Joe Perry, 4-3.

Both Chen Zhe and Zhang Anda successfully negotiated their way through amateur qualifying on Thursday, and what’s more they did so with a perfect 4-0 record in each match. Zhe beating Kristof de Bruyn and Patrick Geysels, Anda beating Pierre Dethier and Reanne Evans. Zhe was then defeated 1-4 by James Wattana in the first round proper on Friday morning and Anda lost 2-4 to Andrew Norman at the same stage. Yu Delu also lost in the first round, 1-4 to Ireland’s David Hogan.