Ronnie was in blistering form again this afternoon from 5-5 to 11-5 up. When he is in full flow he is a joy to watch.
Maguire has surprised me with how poor he has been playing against Carter. Carter's safety has worn the Scot down and his breakbuilding is looking strong now too. 14-7 and counting. He is cueing beautifully.
Edit: Maguire has recovered to 14-10 overnight. Carter lost a bit of concentration and will now have to be careful. If Maguire wins the first few frames tomorrow it could get very tense.
So then the World Championship Final 2012 is:
Ali Carter (13) v Ronnie O'Sullivan (14)
On paper Ronnie is the favourite as he has an 11-0 record in matches against Carter and bearing in mind his present form and focus the favourite tag is perhaps even more justified.
But Ali Carter is no mug and has played solid match snooker throughout the championship so I would be reluctant to completely write him off. Hoping for an excellent match.
I think Ronnie will do it.... Just! Carter will put up a fight and Ronnie will dig deep to win.
With Peter Ebdon in Ali's corner it could be a lot of tight frames with a lot of spoiling tactics from Ali which could well disrupt Ronnies's timing and furstrate him like Ali did against Maguire. Plus Ali will be looking revenge from Ronnie beating him in 2008 Final
I've had a sneaking feeling for Carter from the start - wish I'd put some money on him now. I think he'll win it 18-16.
We also have the joy of two days worth of the foxy Michaela Tabb sexily strutting round the table with balls in hand
.
So what a great day of snooker we've had.
Ronnie leads 10 - 7 but I think he'll be annoyed to have lost the last frame. Carter has had a rough night but he is hanging on in there and had the rub of the green before the close today. He's shown a lot of fight in the last few frames and has had to dig deep to keep a 3 frame gap.
It's been a long day and I think they've suffered from fatigued a bit towards the end. It hasn't been the best snooker you'll see, a lot of errors from both players, but it has been exciting to watch and has been some excellent shots played. I think it is proving to be one of the best finals for a long time.
Ronnie will be happy to go in with a 3 frame cushion and will be looking to put Carter to bed. I think Carter won't go easy though and if Ronnie doesn't hit his A game and Carter comes out a bit more attacking I think the come back might be on.
Look forwards to tomorrow, and I'd still fancy Ronnie to win it.
Ronnie has come out this evening and battered Ali. Ronnie is on fire and playing with such precision in both safety and break building, he has potted with confidence and class.
Ali will need to dig deeper then ever to stand a chance.
A well deserved win for Ronnie. When his head is right he's the best around at the moment.
Now to be perfectly honest here, although it would appear that Ronnie was indeed in blistering form, I've gotta admit he's played better and still lost. Ali to me suffered from a poor display of confidence, he missed easy pots and failed to win sets and a lot of Ronnie's victory was down to capitalising on Ali's errors. Let's be honest here against better opposition Ronnie would'nt have won it so easy or at all for that matter. Ali was piss poor tonight and made too many school boy errors to prove a match for Ronnie. But nonetheless congratulations to Ronnie, if you remember rightly I tipped him at the start of the championships to win it, damn I wish I'd put a bet on now
