Sparkling Ronnie O'Sullivan sees off Shaun Murphy in Wales

O’Sullivan, 42, got off to the perfect start in the evening session as an expert clearance of 92 put him 7-3 up.

Murphy responded well with the first century of the match as he knocked in a break of 137.

In the 12th O’Sullivan showed no reaction to that ton as he got in with a fantastic long red. However, the break ended and a terrible safety allowed Murphy to come to the table.

He then missed a blue but O’Sullivan couldn’t sink a red to the middle pocket but covered himself well with a much better positional shot. Once Murphy fouled and left a red on O’Sullivan cleared up with a break of 54.

In the following frame Murphy somehow fouled by hitting the black straight after O’Sullivan’s break. On the following shot he missed all together but O’Sullivan chose not to make him play it again.

After some tentative safety play between the two O’Sullivan broke the deadlock with another long red.

Once again he couldn’t keep the break going but managed to get back to the table when Murphy missed a red to the middle and The Rocket went one away from victory with another half-century, this time 76.

In the 14th frame a staggering miss from O’Sullivan opened the door for Murphy and it looked like he would take the frame until he went in off.

And O'Sullivan duly finished things off to secure yet another tournament success this season.

Earlier in the day it was Murphy who won the opening frame, with a break of 93 but that only seemed to light the fire within O’Sullivan.

The Rocket won six of the following seven frames with breaks of 54, 50, 65 and 69 along the way.

Murphy got one back with a break of 61 before a 77 saw him win the final frame of the session.