Ronnie O’Sullivan at 50: The Rocket’s storied career in 50-word snapshots
By Mark Staniforth, PA
Ronnie O’Sullivan turns 50 on Friday. Here, Press Association Sport picks out some snapshots from his storied career at the pinnacle of the snooker world.
50 WORDS ON… GROWING UP
O’Sullivan started playing snooker aged seven, and he won his first tournament two years later.
He made his first century break aged 10, and his first competitive maximum aged 15, and turned professional in 1992, aged 17. He won his first ranking event – the UK Championship – later that same year.
50 WORDS ON… RECORDS
O’Sullivan is the youngest player to win the UK Championship and the Masters, and the oldest player to win all three triple crown events.
He has won a record eight UK, and eight Masters titles, and 41 ranking titles. He was the first player to make 1,000 century breaks.
50 WORDS ON… MAXIMUMS
O’Sullivan made his first competitive 147 at the 1991 English Amateur Championship aged 15.
He has made a record 17 competitive maximums, including the fastest ever recorded, in five minutes and eight seconds, against Mick Price at the Crucible in 1997, which was also his first maximum break as a professional.
50 WORDS ON… CONTROVERSY
O’Sullivan was fined and banned for assaulting a press officer at the 1996 World Championship. He has railed against the sport and his opponents and called the venue for the 2018 English Open a “hellhole”. He quit his best-of-17 UK Championship clash with Stephen Hendry after five frames.
50 WORDS ON… RIVALS
O’Sullivan had a long-standing feud with Ali Carter, whom he described as a “f****** nightmare” after a fractious clash at the 2024 Masters. He calls Mark Selby ‘The Torturer’ due to his attritional style of play, and told Hendry to “go back to your sad little life” in 2002.
50 WORDS ON… RUNNING
O’Sullivan loves running, and has even written a book on the sport. “I used to rely on drugs and alcohol to keep me going, but now I’ve got the healthiest addiction going – running,” he wrote. At his physical peak, O’Sullivan was recording times of around 34 minutes for a 10K.
50 WORDS ON… LIFE
Away from the snooker table, O’Sullivan has authored a series of crime novels and launched video games, as well as an award-winning documentary.
But in 2013, he revealed his true passion by claiming: “My dream would probably be to be a property developer. I love ‘Homes Under the Hammer’.
50 WORDS ON… GREATNESS
O’Sullivan is almost universally regarded as the greatest snooker player ever. But the ‘Rocket’ disputes the claim, pointing out other candidates. He insisted in 2024: “I don’t regard myself as the greatest. I’m one of them, maybe. You’ve got Hendry, (Steve) Davis, and my hat’s in the ring with them.”
50 WORDS ON… RETIREMENT
O’Sullivan first threatened to retire after a 1994 UK Championship defeat to Ken Doherty, aged 18. He repeated the threat prior the 2012 world final, but instead took a year off before returning to scoop his fifth world crown the following year.
Currently, he has no concrete plans to quit.
