Hunter the master of comebacks

The final was last night rightly hailed one of the highest-quality matches witnessed in snooker, and O’Sullivan was gallant in defeat, acknowledging the fighting qualities of his Leeds-based opponent who was winning his third Masters title in four years.

"I have to take my hat off to Paul because he showed some bottle," said the Essex player, who squandered leads of 6-1 and 7-2.

"At 7-2 down a lot of people would have thrown the towel in, but he played fantastic and deserved to win. I’m pleased for him."

The 25-year-old champion said he never lost hope, pointing out that he had been performing well even in the frames he had lost. "To play Ronnie in the final, especially at Wembley, is just a dream for me and the crowd was awesome," added Hunter, who edged out Fergal O’Brien in 2001 and Mark Williams 12 months later.

Hunter was presented with a winner’s cheque for 100,000, while O’Sullivan collected 50,000 as runner-up and additional 10,000 for the tournament’s highest break - a brilliant 138 clearance in the second frame of his semi-final against Jimmy White.

The evening session began with O’Sullivan 6-2 in front and winning the first frame, Hunter then made it 7-3 before reducing the deficit to 7-4 with a break of 102.

He then won the following two frames to leave O’Sullivan in a sweat, but ‘The Rocket’ gave himself an extra-padded cushion by stretching his lead to 8-6 before Hunter clawed himself back to 8-7.

O’Sullivan made it 9-7, his opponent again refused to accept defeat and won the next frame to make it 9-8.

Hunter finally hauled himself level with O’Sullivan after one loose safety shot from ‘The Rocket’ allowed his opponent to end the longest frame of the match by clearing up with a brilliant 58 to force the final into a deciding frame.

Hunter then completes a his remarkable comeback to pip O'Sullivan by the narrowest of margins after a long and testing safety battle.

Sitting in the shadows for so long was not an unfamiliar position in a Masters final for Hunter, who trailed Irishman O’Brien 6-2 in 2001 but recovered to claim a 10-9 win, helped by four centuries in five frames. Twelve months later the world No 8 slumped 5-0 in arrears to Williams but again came back to win in a deciding frame.

O’Sullivan, by his own admission, had not been at his best in this tournament, but there was little wrong with his form in a first session lasting just 100 minutes. Apart from the frames in which he compiled his tons, Hunter missed too many pots and O’Sullivan capitalised.

He took the first two frames with breaks of 56 and 80 before world number eight Hunter opened his account with an excellent 117.

However, in the next two frames the Yorkshireman potted only one ball as O’Sullivan fired in runs of 87 and 84.

After another Hunter error in frame seven O’Sullivan made 45, played a superb safety shot and then profited to the tune of 79 further points as his opponent struggled to escape from the snooker. Just when things began to look desperate for the underdog he finally found his range and cleared the table with 127. It left him needing to take eight of the remaining 11 frames to claim his hat-trick of Masters titles, but he did just that.

Hunter had reached the Masters final with a 6-3 win over Wishaw’s John Higgins on Saturday. He produced breaks of 96, 91 and 68 as Higgins struggled to get to grips with conditions.

The Scot launched a verbal assault on the sport’s governing body after his defeat, so displeased was he with the state of the tables at Wembley.

"It was torture out there," said Higgins. "We were playing with a light white, and the cushions were an absolute joke. I just couldn’t get hold of the cue ball, and we shouldn’t have to play on that. The table was a disgrace. Top players are not used to it. I’ve asked for something to be done. It’s a sad day for snooker when no one listens to the players. But it’s not sour grapes. It would have been a travesty had I won that match."