O’Sullivan admits to pre-booked flight before Higgins match
Ronnie O’Sullivan has made the extraordinary admission that he had arranged a flight back to Dublin before Monday’s final session against John Higgins even began, reports BritPanorama.
The seven-time world champion, who is based in Dubai but has a home in Ireland, was so convinced of imminent defeat that he organised his Monday morning departure in advance. “I’ve got to be honest with you, I had a flight booked home early this morning,” O’Sullivan revealed. “Because I wasn’t sure if I’d get to the third session before the match started.”
O’Sullivan’s pessimism proved unfounded as he pushed Higgins all the way to a dramatic final-frame decider at the Crucible. However, despite O’Sullivan’s lack of confidence, it was Higgins who ultimately prevailed, recovering from a seemingly insurmountable 9-4 deficit to triumph 13-12 in a final-frame shootout.
The Scottish veteran attributed his extraordinary turnaround to the freshly laid table cloth, believing the previous surface would have prevented his resurgence. “When they said the tables had been recovered, I thought this is a chance,” he explained. “I wouldn’t have had that burst in me if it was the old cloth.”
During the decisive third session, Higgins produced magnificent potting, compiling three centuries across a stunning five-frame stretch that left O’Sullivan watching helplessly from his seat. O’Sullivan acknowledged his realism regarding his prospects facing elite opposition, citing his lack of involvement in major matches over the past two years as a factor. “It’s alright beating people in the last 64 or 32, ranked 30th or 40th in the world,” he said.
His frustrations were evident, culminating in visible outbursts during the contest, where he punched a cushion in frame 16 and struck his cue against the table near the match’s conclusion. “I wasn’t even angry. I was quite frustrated,” O’Sullivan explained. “I thought: ‘I missed another bloody important ball. How many of these am I going to keep missing?'”
Following the match, former world champion Ken Doherty lauded the encounter as one of the finest last-16 matches in Crucible history, praising the exceptional standard Higgins demonstrated during his comeback. “It’s probably one of the greatest last-16 matches we have ever seen,” he remarked.
Higgins now advances to the quarter-finals for the 20th occasion, taking a 4-3 lead in their record-equalling Crucible rivalry spanning three decades. The dynamics of sport are often unpredictable, as this match illustrated — a poignant reminder that confidence and reality can diverge in unexpected ways.
