Snooker: O'sullivan Steamrollers Ding

Ronnie O'Sullivan's authentic, if sometimes elusive, genius was there for all to see last night as he swept to an imperious 10-3 victory over Ding Junhui to win the Saga Masters for the third time at Wembley Arena. He has twice won the Betfred Premier League, with its 25-seconds-per-shot time limit, and has produced the odd match of real quality, but this was his first title for 22 months. It earned him £130,000 with Ding getting £62,000 as runner-up.

"Yes, I played well," said O'Sullivan, never one to go overboard in self-praise. "But Ding doesn't need to prove anything to me. If he keeps on improving he'll be a multiple world champion."

The 19-year-old Chinese, already the winner of three world-ranking titles, made breaks of 77 and 109 to lead 2-0 but became so demoralised by O'Sullivan's sustained excellence that his last two shots of the 12th frame were nothing more than attempts to present O'Sullivan with chances to finish the frame.

At its conclusion Ding puzzlingly offered an end-of-match handshake - it later emerged that he had thought the final was best-of-17 rather than 19. As they then left the arena for a break O'Sullivan put an encouraging arm round Ding's shoulder - and of course, in one way, the Essex man is ideally suited to play the elder statesman in this sort of situation after his premature walk-out in the sixth frame of a possible 17 when trailing Stephen Hendry 4-1 in their UK quarter-final in York last month.

The precise reasons for this have yet to emerge although Sir Rodney Walker, the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association chairman, has undertaken to write to the disciplinary committee on the player's behalf. Walker said last night: "Ronnie shared with me the issues which have caused his problems. Ronnie's problems have changed. The personal problems he explained to me are different to those he had before."

O'Sullivan, who has suffered several lapses into clinical depression during a career which has contained exceptional highs and all too many lows, said of his withdrawal in York: "I won't be made to crack up in front of everybody." This suggests that a mixture of practical and psychological problems was involved.

Yesterday after Ding had taken the first two frames so authoritatively it seemed inconceivable that he would be so comprehensively outplayed, but O'Sullivan closed out the third frame with 55 and added further runs of 99 (which would have been a century but for light-heartedly potting the last black with both feet off the floor), 128 and 101 to lead 4-2.

Just when it seemed as if O'Sullivan might never miss another ball of any account, he failed on 56 in the seventh frame, which he eventually lost on the pink, but with 116 to end the afternoon and 96 to start the evening he led 6-3.

Ding was first in with 65 in the 10th but his failure at the frame-ball red allowed O'Sullivan in to make a sublime 66 clearance and dash any realistic hope of a Ding rally. O'Sullivan's 143 total clearance followed that - and then came an initial 48 of six reds and six blacks in the 12th in an attempt to earn a half-share of the £35,000 standing to Ding's credit for his 147 on the event's opening day. Lost position meant that Ding at least kept hold of that prize.

Ding, on the brink of tears, simply opened the bunch of remaining reds invitingly for O'Sullivan to score another 49. After the handshake confusion and the intermission it took O'Sullivan only 13 minutes to clinch the title with a 74 break.

Ding's tears may have indicated that he felt such a trouncing was a public humiliation. In fact he was simply on the wrong end of a supreme performance.