Ronnie O’Sullivan says he was so short of confidence in beating John Higgins that he had booked a flight for the morning before the final session of the match.
The two Class of 92 legends played out a Crucible classic in the second round of the World Snooker Championship, with Higgins emerging with a 13-12 victory after an epic struggle.
The Rocket looked in control of the contest after taking a 6-2 lead in the first session, then moved to 9-4 ahead on Sunday night, before Higgins won the last three frames of the session to cut his deficit to two.
The Wizard of Wishaw played superbly on Monday afternoon – as did O’Sullivan – with the match going all the way to a deciding frame, where Higgins got the job done.
The seven-time world champion says he did not expect that final session to even happen, though, saying that he thought he would be beaten by the end of Sunday night.
He claims he was so confident in that result that he had already booked a flight out of the UK for before Monday’s session began.
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‘I’ve got to be honest with you, I had a flight booked home early this morning because I wasn’t sure I’d get to a third session before the match started,’ O’Sullivan told a post-match press conference.
‘I was realistic about my chances. John’s strong, playing well, won tournaments the last couple of years. I haven’t been in any big matches, really, for two years. It’s a different level.
‘It’s alright beating people in the last 64, 32, whatever it is. People ranked 30-40 in the world, but playing the top boys under pressure, a real pressure situation, I knew it was going to expose me in some sort of way.
‘I was really shocked I was able to make a game of it, to be honest with you.’
O’Sullivan played very well for large portions of the match, but was critical of himself in the big moments.
‘If you watch the match back and watch how many important balls I missed to win frames, you can’t do that,’ he said. ‘You can’t miss balls under pressure, vital balls, if you do you’re not going to win.No one’s that good.
‘It’s all about potting the big balls under pressure and I just didn’t.’
Frustration set in for the Rocket on Sunday night, punching the table and banging his cue after missed shots, but he said they were just fleeting moments of annoyance.
‘I wasn’t even angry. I was quite frustrated because it was a big ball and I was like, “I’ve missed another bloody important ball! How many of these am I going to keep missing?”‘ O’Sullivan said of punching the table.
‘It was kind of a nice sort of anger. Then the last frame, I thought, rather than the hand, I’ll do it with the cue.
‘I wasn’t really that angry. I missed a tough ball , it was nice to go, bang! Within a second it’s deleted and I’m cool as a cucumber, really.
‘I like to just get it out and it’s just done, draw a line under it and move forward.’