Ronnie O'Sullivan - the greatest showman in snooker

WORLD SNOOKER CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL
THE CRUCIBLE • 1-2 MAY
[2] RONNIE O'SULLIVAN 18-13 JUDD TRUMP [4]

[1]	5-3	Sun 1pm 0-98 (72), 120-0 (120), 78-1 (68), 73-66 (JT 52) 62-13, 105-4 (105), 0-98 (97), 50-79
[2]	7-2	Sun 7pm 36-100 (73), 117-7 (66, 50), 122-9 (118) 107-15 (97), 77-0, 94-26 (87), 4-80 (80), 79-0 (60), 88-33 (88)
[3]	2-6	Mon 1pm 22-115 (107), 25-90 (59), 0-81, 71-45 (64), 20-66, 51-60, 68-1 (55), 0-126 (105)
[4]	4-2	Mon 7pm 82-12 (82), 88-12 (88), 27-72 (64), 91-1 (75), 0-151 (109), 93-0 (85)

RONNIE O'SULLIVAN joined Stephen Hendry on a record seven World Snooker Championship titles with a scintillating performance against Judd Trump at the Crucible.

O'Sullivan beat Trump 18-13 to go level with Hendry, and one world title clear of Steve Davis and Ray Reardon. At the age of 46, the Rocket also became the oldest Crucible champion ahead of former mentor Reardon.

"I think it meant more to him [Hendry] than me to have seven world titles but we will share it," O'Sullivan said.

"Hendry is an absolute legend of the game. It is just a number - I do not get too caught up in that."

Nevertheless, it was an extremely emotional O'Sullivan who picked up the trophy on Monday night, having first made time to give Trump a huge bear-hug and words of encouragement.

Trump, for his part, admitted that he had left himself with far too much to do after the first day of the contest at the end of which he found himself 12-5 down.

The 32-year-old Bristolian, appearing in his third world final, took the first frame of the match - but, ultimately, that would be the last time he led.

O'Sullivan responded immediately in the second frame with a 120 break and then took advantage of some sloppy Trump play to stride into a 5-1 lead.

In an early critical moment, the Rocket won the fourth on a re-spotted black with a cocked-hat double after having needed a snooker.

But, somehow, the opening session ended with Trump recovering to trail only 5-3 - while the Rocket was rocked after receiving an official warning from match referee Olivier Marteel.

It remains unclear what exactly happened at the end of the eighth frame after O'Sullivan ran out of position and failed to get out of a self-imposed snooker.

However, the Chigwell man has previously expressed his displeasure at his mistakes by making lewd gestures - although, on this occasion, he vehemently protested his innocence.

There had been an earlier minor flash-point in the third frame when Marteel failed to re-spot the cue ball correctly so that it unquestionably had a material impact on the options available to O'Sullivan.

But the incident at the end of the first afternoon made for altogether far more uncomfortable viewing - and the Rocket walked out of the arena without shaking hands with Marteel.

At the start of the second session on Sunday night, O'Sullivan did shake hands with the official, and the friction from the end of the afternoon thankfully appeared to dissipate.

Still, it made for interesting footage for the producers with whom O'Sullivan has agreed to make a Netflix-style documentary...

Back to the snooker - and Trump again took the first frame to reduce arrears further to 5-4.

From then on, though, O'Sullivan preyed on Trump's evident discomfort to achieve an ultimately unassailable advantage.

The Rocket took the 10th frame after a bad Trump error in the balls, won the 11th with a century break, and took the 12th after Trump messed up another big chance by missing a black off the spot.

In an error-strewn 13th frame, immediately after the mid-session interval, O'Sullivan again got the better of the early exchanges against an increasingly-forlorn Trump whose game was "in tatters", according to Hendry on BBC commentary duties.

O'Sullivan also took the 14th with an 87 break - and so it was to the great credit to Trump that he made a run of 80 in the 15th frame to stop the rot.

The last two frames of the session went to form, though - O'Sullivan took the 16th following an extremely unfortunate in-off by Trump with cue ball deflecting off a red into the pocket.

And, while he was nowhere near as unlucky as that in the 17th, it will have felt just as agonising for Trump to lose after he had again got in first.

Resuming on the second day, there was a fairly widespread anticipation that O'Sullivan might win with a session spare, given Trump's struggles.

Instead, the Ace produced by far his best snooker of the Final, bookending the session with century breaks of 107 and 105, and taking six of the eight frames to close back to 14-11.

This Final had finally sparked into life - and now at least it was on the baize.

All eyes again were on O'Sullivan ahead of the evening denouement - from the talk of winning with a session to spare, suddenly a momentous Trump comeback was on the cards.

The doubts about O'Sullivan did not last for long, though - and, at the final mid-session interval, he had extended his lead back to five frames at 17-12 with a trio of half-century breaks.

On each occasion, O'Sullivan appeared to be in with a good chance of a 16th ton at the Championship, which would have equalled a Crucible record held by Hendry and Mark Williams, only to break down with the frame already won.

Nevertheless, the Rocket still made three centuries in a largely free-flowing Final - including his 200th at the Crucible in the second frame.

Trump also made three tons, including a 109 in frame 30 which, coincidentally, set a new record of 109 centuries at this World Snooker Championship, one more than in 2021.

That effort pulled the score back to 17-13 - but, with still so much breathing room, there was no way that O'Sullivan was going to be denied.

In the 31st frame, the Rocket worked an opening by forcing Trump to play a containing safety shot which left a chance on a red along the cushion.

It was Trump's last shot of the Championship, as O'Sullivan then triumphantly breezed to a break of 85 to charge over the finish line amid a jubilant atmosphere.

Pertinently, in the evening mid-session interval, the BBC had shown an excellent feature about success and failure, something which O'Sullivan especially has had to deal with throughout his career.

Of course, he would be the first to admit he has failed to act in an appropriate manner in some of the situations in which he has found himself.

Nevertheless, for many years now, he has been acknowledged as the most talented player to have picked up a cue - the greatest of all time, if you like.

The difference now is that, whether he actually really cares about the numbers or not, O'Sullivan finally has the seven world titles with which to prove it.

WORLD SNOOKER CHAMPIONSHIP
THE CRUCIBLE THEATRE

FIRST ROUND [Best of 19 frames]

	[1]	Mark Selby	10-7	Jamie Jones
	[16]	Yan Bingtao	10-6	Chris Wakelin
	[9]	Barry Hawkins	7-10	Jackson Page
	[8]	Mark Williams	10-3	Michael White

	[5]	Kyren Wilson	10-8	Ding Junhui
	[12]	Stuart Bingham	10-5	Lyu Haotian
	[13]	Anthony McGill	10-7	Liam Highfield
	[4]	Judd Trump	10-4	Hossein Vafaei

	[3]	Neil Robertson	10-5	Ashley Hugill
	[14]	Jack Lisowski	10-8	Matthew Stevens
	[11]	Luca Brecel	5-10	Noppon Saengkham
	[6]	John Higgins	10-7	Thepchaiya Un-Nooh

	[7]	Zhao Xintong	10-2	Jamie Clarke
	[10]	Shaun Murphy	8-10	Stephen Maguire
	[15]	Mark Allen	10-7	Scott Donaldson
	[2]	Ronnie O'Sullivan	10-5	David Gilbert

SECOND ROUND [Best of 25 frames]

	[1]	Mark Selby	10-13	Yan Bingtao	[16]
		Jackson Page	3-13	Mark Williams	[8]
	[5]	Kyren Wilson	9-13	Stuart Bingham	[12]
	[13]	Anthony McGill	11-13	Judd Trump	[4]

	[3]	Neil Robertson	12-13	Jack Lisowski	[14]
		Noppon Saengkham	7-13	John Higgins	[6]
	[7]	Zhao Xintong	9-13	Stephen Maguire
	[15]	Mark Allen	4-13	Ronnie O'Sullivan	[2]

QUARTER FINALS [Best of 25 frames]

	[16]	Yan Bingtao	11-13	Mark Williams	[8]
	[12]	Stuart Bingham	8-13	Judd Trump	[4]
	[14]	Jack Lisowski	12-13	John Higgins	[6]
		Stephen Maguire	5-13	Ronnie O'Sullivan	[2]

SEMI FINALS [Best of 33 frames]

	[8]	Mark Williams	16-17	Judd Trump	[4]
	[6]	John Higgins	11-17	Ronnie O'Sullivan	[2]

CENTURIES 109
147 Neil Robertson 

140 Stuart Bingham
138 Mark Williams (2)

137 Mark Selby, Jack Lisowski, Mark Williams (2)

136 Zhao Xintong
135 Jackson Page, Mark Williams

134 Mark Selby, Ronnie O'Sullivan

132 Neil Robertson, Mark Selby
131 Mark Selby, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Neil Robertson
130 Shaun Murphy, Chris Wakelin

129 Mark Selby, Anthony McGill

128 Jackson Page, John Higgins

127 Neil Robertson, Mark Williams, Noppon Saengkham
126 Kyren Wilson, Ronnie O'Sullivan
125 Mark Williams, John Higgins
124 Anthony McGill
123 Ronnie O'Sullivan, John Higgins
122 Ronnie O'Sullivan, Ding Junhui, Jack Lisowski

121 Mark Williams (3), Hossein Vafaei, Ronnie O'Sullivan
120 Judd Trump, Ronnie O'Sullivan

119 Jack Lisowski, Mark Williams
117 Mark Williams, Ding Junhui, Mark Selby, Neil Robertson

116 Mark Williams, Ronnie O'Sullivan
114 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, Judd Trump

113 Judd Trump
112 Yan Bingtao, Noppon Saengkham
110 Mark Williams, Noppon Saengkham, Ding Junhui, Mark Allen, Judd Trump
109 Zhao Xintong, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Mark Allen, Neil Robertson (2), Luca Brecel, Judd Trump

108 Matthew Stevens
107 Mark Allen, Stephen Maguire, Judd Trump, Ronnie O'Sullivan

106 John Higgins, Yan Bingtao, Jack Lisowski, Anthony McGill, Mark Williams, Stuart Bingham
105 Judd Trump (3), John Higgins, Ronnie O'Sullivan
104 Ronnie O'Sullivan, Yan Bingtao, Stuart Bingham
103 Zhao Xintong, Lyu Haotian, Judd Trump, Kyren Wilson, Yan Bingtao, John Higgins
102 Jackson Page Stephen Maguire, Yan Bingtao (2)
101 Kyren Wilson, Yan Bingtao, Ronnie O'Sullivan
100 Yan Bingtao, Mark Williams, Ronnie O'Sullivan, John Higgins (2), Jack Lisowski, Judd Trump