Snooker: “the Rocket” fires himself into the record books
Little in life has been straightforward for Ronnie O’Sullivan, said Elgan Alderman in The Times. His father, a Soho sex-shop boss, was convicted of murder when his son was a teenager, and spent 18 years in prison. His mother also had a spell inside in the 1990s – for tax evasion – leaving young Ronnie to care for his eight-year-old sister. And O’Sullivan himself “has endured drug and alcohol addiction”, as well as often crippling bouts of depression. But on Monday night at the Crucible in Sheffield, with his father and two children, Lily and Ronnie Jr, cheering him on, he “fulfilled 30 years of destiny” by beating Judd Trump 18-13 in the final of the World Snooker Championship. It is the seventh time O’Sullivan has won in Sheffield, and he is now level with Stephen Hendry as the player with the most world titles. At 46, he is also the “oldest world champion in snooker history”.
It’s somewhat ironic that O’Sullivan – the “fastest-thinking and most dashing snooker player of them all” – has needed so long to fulfil his “destiny”, said Jeremy Wilson in The Daily Telegraph. Prodigiously talented as a junior – he made his first competitive century break when he was just ten – he exploded onto the professional scene in his teens, winning his first rankings tournament aged 17 in 1993. Yet he struggled to keep his focus early in his career, and it would be another eight years before he won his first world crown. The six titles since have also been widely spaced apart. It’s true that O’Sullivan has never dominated the sport as totally as Hendry in the 1990s, or Steve Davis before him in the 1980s, said Peter Carline in the Daily Mail. But such has been his sheer longevity that he has amassed virtually all of snooker’s significant records. There’s little doubt that with this latest victory, he cements his status as the “greatest player the game has ever seen”.
O’Sullivan, who believed himself finished in his mid-30s, credits his success over the past decade to his work with the sports psychologist Steve Peters, said Aaron Bower in The Guardian. And worryingly for his rivals, “the Rocket” only seems to be “getting better and better”. At this year’s championship, he brushed most opponents aside, and he struck more centuries (15) and 50-plus breaks than in any of his previous world title runs. In fact, there was only one serious moment of worry all tournament, when Judd Trump briefly rallied to cut O’Sullivan’s lead in the final from 12-5 to 14-11. Suddenly, those present wondered if they “could be witnessing the greatest comeback in snooker history”. But with a further series of superb breaks, O’Sullivan swiftly completed the task. Afterwards, clearly emotional, he gave Trump a “lengthy embrace”, and described the win as “probably my greatest result”.