O'Sullivan Sets Sights Higher After Wrapping Up Final

Ronnie O'Sullivan, the sport's runaway No1, captured his 21st world-ranking title in emphatic and sometimes sublime style by defeating an unexpected finalist, Dave Harold, 9-3 to win the Northern Ireland trophy at the Waterfront Hall.

Holding such a commanding lead over the world No28 from Stoke, O'Sullivan's concentration did not appear fully focused as he lost the first frame of the evening and almost the second before claiming it with a 64 clearance. Another clearance, this time of 41 to win on the black, took him to 8-2 but Harold is not the sort who ever gives up and with his highest break of the day, 81, he kept the match alive for one further frame in which he could not, however, recover from O'Sullivan's early 50.

"I think I could get to 30," the 32-year-old O'Sullivan said of his potential to overtake Steve Davis's total of 28 titles, although he regards Stephen Hendry's 36 as a much more difficult proposition.

"My form is a little bit inconsistent. I sometimes go missing for two or three frames then play four or five good ones. There are still things I'm working on but this season I've hit the ground running."

O'Sullivan took home a first prize of £30,000 while Harold secured £15,000 and a rise to world No16.

Harold said of his conqueror: "He's mesmerizing and sometimes you get sucked into watching him. As a player and entertainer Ronnie is the best ever. He made a clearance in the seventh frame no one else in the world could have made."

Harold, at 41 the oldest finalist since Jimmy White clinched the 2004 Players Championship, won the 1993 Asian Open as a 500-1 outsider but had not reached a final since 1994 nor a semi since 2003.

Having eliminated the defending champion, Stephen Maguire, in the quarter- finals and held on from 5-1 up to nail the twice world champion John Higgins 6-4 in the semis, he yesterday won the opening frame and led 44-0 in the second before O'Sullivan outclassed him.

The world champion made breaks of 68, 103, 84 and 54 which enabled him to move 4-1 ahead. He was never threatened in the sixth and from 60-0 down in the last frame of the afternoon he cleared the final seven reds and the first five colors for a break of 76. As four of these reds had lain in apparently safe positions and a delicate positional cannon was required to prise the brown away from the pink, this was nothing less than a demonstration of genius executed with an air of certainty.