Ronnie O'Sullivan promised to bring a hairdryer to The Crucible for his World Championship final showdown with Judd Trump.
Despite being subjected to wet trousers during his semi-final showdown with John Higgins, 'The Rocket' was at his sublime best, eventually winning 17-11. Trump came through a much closer affair, winning a thriller 17-16 against Mark Williams.
O'Sullivan and fellow veteran Higgins, both 46, were actually locked at 6-6 early on before the six-time champion stepped on the gas to take four frames in a row. During that period, he produced arguably the shot of the tournament by landing a long red and still getting position on a difficult black.
While he was comfortable at the table, though, away from it he was anything but, embroiled in regular conversation with the match referee. And speaking to Eurosport pundit Jimmy White after his win, he revealed the nature of one amusing delay after sitting on his chair.
"It must have been wet because I sat down and I've just drenched my..." he claimed before White jumped in with: "What about your towel? Did you put a wet towel down?" O'Sullivan then protested: "It [the seat] must have been wet from before."
He did however, come up with a solution to stop a reoccurrence of the incident in the final: "I am going to have to bring a hairdryer out from now on if someone has wet the seat," he said, which brought a big smile to the face of 'The Whirlwind'.
It wasn't O'Sullivan's only complaint though, as he seemed to add to the growing discontent over conditions in the famous Crucible arena: "I turned up to the venue to go to my dressing room and found I didn't even have a dressing room."
The Wordsley born star also had to step back from a couple of shots after being disrupted by crowd noise, but did admit he was at fault for one of his issues: "I was a bit unsettled tonight to be honest. I forgot my chalk, which wasn't ideal preparation."
Regardless of his mishaps, the 20-time Triple Crown winner is the favourite to add another world crown to this growing list of titles. Should he do so, he will tie level with Stephen Hendry on seven championship wins in Sheffield.
As is so often the case, his tournament has not been without controversy, and he was reprimanded following his first round match against David Gilbert. 'The Rocket' appeared to make a lewd gesture after missing a simple black.
His friend White has been in the headlines as well. Thinking the microphones were off, he went on a foul-mouthed rant on commentary about the working conditions with Eurosport, prompting a comical reaction from fans.
He later apologised, tweeting: "I wanted to offer my sincerest apologies for my unacceptable language earlier today and for any offence caused. Hope this didn’t affect anyone’s enjoyment of the coverage and can continue to look forward to an exciting last few days."
