Ronnie O'Sullivan accused of bullying opponent and 'taking the mickey' in Masters final - 'What is he doing?'

O'Sullivan is competing in his 14th Masters final as he aims to win the tournament for a record-extending eighth time.

After a convincing performance against Murphy in Saturday's semi-final, he didn't have it all his own way in the early stages of Sunday's clash.

Carter led 2-1 as the BBC cut back to the studio to speak to their pundits.

Murphy, fresh from his loss to O'Sullivan 24 hours earlier, sat alongside Hendry and gave his verdict on the start of the match.

The 41-year-old criticised O'Sullivan for playing the 'incorrect' shots and claimed it was a 'mickey take' from the seven-time champion.

Murphy said: "He's played this shot here, the cue ball's nowhere as you can see.

"He gets the double kiss on the red, which misses. Then later on in the frame, he has a lash at a cross-double here.

"These are the incorrect shots, these aren't the correct shots to play.

"And of course he knows that better than anyone.

"It's when you get punished for them when you get found out. Yesterday a lot of them went in.

"Those didn't go in, and there's been other shots as well.

"The problem with it is, as I say right shot, wrong shot, people will be debating it.

"But it's the message it sends to the opponent and it's not a nice one because it's almost a bit of a mickey take, it's almost taking it out of the opponent, saying 'I'm not bothered about what you do, I'm just going to play my game and I'm going to beat you while I do it'.

"That's what he's saying, that's the message, and he's doing it on purpose."

Hendry, who had many a battle with O'Sullivan in the 1990s, agreed with Murphy.

He claimed O'Sullivan was attempting to bully Carter with his outlandish shots.

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Hendry said: "It's almost like saying 'I'm going to do what I want in this match, play whatever shot I want and can you handle it? Are you mentally strong enough to handle it?'.

"So it's almost challenging your opponent to be strong enough to cope with it.

"It's almost like standing up against a bully.

"He's bullying you on the table by playing these shots.

"He's bullying you mentally, as in testing you.

"You're in your chair watching these shots thinking 'What is he doing? This is the final of the Masters and you're playing these shots'. It's fascinating."