Ronnie O’Sullivan miss stuns commentators at Masters – ‘One of the worst I’ve ever seen!’

Ronnie O’Sullivan appeared to make the most inexplicable error during his first-round match against Luca Brecel at the Masters – but all was not as it seemed.

The Rocket was amongst the balls in the third frame at Alexandra Palace and taking on the simplest of reds into the bottom pocket when he somehow contrived to miss it. And by some margin.

“Oh wow, what about that! What happened there?” exclaimed Neal Foulds on Eurosport commentary. “That’s one of the easiest balls I think I’ve ever seen him miss.”

So what had happened? It turned O’Sullivan was not solely to blame after replays showed he suffered a horrendous kick, diverting the red away from the pocket.

“It’s a kick. It’s a monster kick. That is staggering. The ball just straightened completely,” Foulds continued.

“I’m going to just change it – it’s not one of the worst balls I’ve seen him miss… it’s one of the worst kicks I’ve ever seen because that was why it happened.”

O’Sullivan still managed to pinch the frame for a 3-0 lead after Brecel crumbled on the colours for the second frame in a row.

• ‘The fans will love you’ – Vafaei on how to become people’s champion at Masters
• Robertson ‘struggling so much physically’ due to illness in Masters loss to Murphy

– – –