Ronnie O'Sullivan reaches 14th Masters final

Ronnie O'Sullivan stormed into a 14th Masters final with a 6-2 win over Shaun Murphy and then called on snooker’s young pretenders to up their game.

The 48-year-old moved one victory away from becoming the oldest winner of this Triple Crown event with four half-century breaks enough to down old rival Murphy in their first meeting for five years.

Murphy reeled off two superb three-figure breaks, including 131 in the third frame, but O’Sullivan’s cavalier approach paid dividends with reds aplenty potted in this semi-final to delight a packed Alexandra Palace crowd.

"I don’t feel that old," O’Sullivan, the youngest ever Masters winner, told BBC.

"I know my age but I feel young in my mind and I feel young when I am around the table.

"I feel a lot younger round the table than I do when I play these young players. They look old! Their brains are quite slow so for me, I feel like my brain is pretty quick around the snooker table, which is enough.

"Yeah, they need to get their act together because I am going blind, I have a dodgy arm and bad knees. And they still can’t beat me!"

O'Sullivan had bemoaned his standard and the "disgusting" Alexandra Palace venue after Thursday’s last-eight success over Barry Hawkins and started this encounter by potting the white.

It was not a sign of things to come as the seven-time Masters champion won a nip-and-tuck opener.

Murphy, who had been working beyond midnight for BBC’s commentary team on Friday, missed a black in the second and O’Sullivan responded with a break of 52 to take a 2-0 lead.

It was already approaching now-or-never territory for Murphy, but he responded with a scintillating century in the third frame.

The 2015 champion cleaned up with a 131 break after a slice of luck with his final red