Ronnie O'Sullivan conceded he did not play well enough to beat Judd Trump after blowing a sizeable lead to lose 10-7 in the final of the inaugural World Grand Prix in Wales on Sunday.
The 39-year-old had been 7-4 ahead but missed out on the £100,000 prize after Trump was allowed to level and then clear the next three frames to win at Venue Cymru in north Wales.
O'Sullivan, who has a property in Chigwell, gave away his silver medal to a disabled member of the crowd, Steffan Campbell, and afterwards reflected his first final defeat to Trump.
He said: "Judd's a bit like (Mark) Selby. If you go three, four, five frames up, they seem to play better when they're behind. I expected him to come back at me.
"I wasn't playing well enough to be able to keep my foot to the pedal. I knew I was going to give him chances. Some days you're not timing the ball well, and today was one of those days."
'The Rocket' continued: I'm disappointed to have lost but I'm proud of my achievements this week.
"Hopefully this tournament is here to stay. It's a great venue and a great tournament. It's a proper event, you really appreciate the quality of it."
O'Sullivan previously beat the 25-year-old Bristolian in the UK Championship and Champion of Champions event prior to Christmas. Trump was understandably delighted to reverse that trend.
He said: "It's a great feeling to beat Ronnie in a big final for the first time. You don't want to lose too many times in a row against the same player. Two times is already a lot, and going behind tonight 7-4, I thought it was just going to be the same thing.
"Not a lot of people come back from that far behind against Ronnie so I'm over the moon. I've dug in all week. I didn't play great stuff, nowhere near my best. At 4-1 down, I was getting a little bit frustrated and then it seemed to turn. It was a weird game, a bit patchy. In the end I kept calm and got over the line."
A break of 142 in frame 14 saw Trump draw level and claim an additional £5,000 for the highest clearance of the tournament before sealing three further frames to win the best-of-19 contest.
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