Earlier in the week, it appeared that Ronnie O'Sullivan would breeze his way to another Masters title, as he blitzed Marco Fu 6-0. It was an outlandish Ronnie performance, in which Fu's only five points in the first four frames came courtesy of a Ronnie foul. After the game, however, O'Sullivan complained of dizzy spells which forced him to play purely off instinct. Those who had hoped that this was a kind of self-effacing, artistic flourish were to be disappointed, however, as Ronnie crashed out of the tournament yesterday. He lost 6-1 to Antrim's Mark Allen, and again complained of suffering from dizzy spells.
In spite of this being his first loss at the Masters since 2015, he remains the crowd favourite. This Allen discovered much to his chagrin, as he told the BBC afterward.
There are still a few idiots out there. I'm on my shot and they're shouting out 'Come on Ronnie' but it's part and parcel of playing Ronnie.
I played a brown in one of the frames, coming down on the red frame ball, it's touch and go if I'm going to be on it and an idiot shouts out 'keep running'. Shut your mouth, I'm trying to play a game of snooker.
That's not a reflection on Ronnie at all. I love it, it gets me up for it. I potted the red and looked up at him as if to say 'is that all you've got?'
Allen will now face either John Higgins or Ryan Day in the semi-finals of a competition he has yet to win.
