Ronnie O’Sullivan’s most recent World Championship title, won so emotionally at the iconic Crucible Theatre in 2022, more or less ended the debate surrounding snooker’s greatest player of all time.
By claiming the world title for a seventh time, O’Sullivan equalled Stephen Hendry’s modern-era record, having already surpassed the Scot for most ranking titles (currently 41 and counting) and becoming the first man to make 1,000 century breaks in professional competition.
He never quite dominated snooker in the same way that Hendry did in the 1990s or Steve Davis had in the decade prior but has instead enjoyed a scarcely believable longevity at the very top. After all, this was a career that really burst into life when a 17-year-old snooker-obsessed teenager from Essex became the youngest-ever ranking event winner at the 1993 UK Championship and he’s still claiming titles in 2024 at the age of 48.
Throw in a captivating, swashbuckling, seemingly effortless style of play that means The Rocket’s reputation as a sporting genius has long since transcended snooker’s narrow confines, and GOAT status is undisputed.
Yet as those who have followed his rollercoaster career, or watched his candid, raw 2023 documentary The Edge of Everything will be painfully aware, the almost endless trophies and triumphs haven’t always brought him happiness or satisfaction. Many a whitewash victory against an overmatched opponent has been followed by O’Sullivan slating his own performance for not quite reaching the impossibly perfect standards he demands of himself.
So perhaps it should come as no surprise that, in an exclusive interview with The Independent, he reveals that he yearns to be more like those who came before him.
“I wish I was a bit more results-driven and win-driven, like Stephen Hendry and Steve Davis,” says O’Sullivan. “If you’re more like that, then you can go ‘Oh, I won – great. I lost – p****d off. I just need to win next time.’ I think for Hendry especially, it was all about winning. They’re different animals.
“But I’m not, I’m much more like ‘Did I play a good game? Did I hit the ball well? Am I enjoying it? Am I feeling the buzz from it?’ If I’m doing all that, I don’t need to win – you just can’t wait to get your cue out of your case. It becomes a bit more feeling-based and emotion-based.
“That’s probably not the best way to be. In hindsight, I would have much rather been the other way. But you feel how you feel in your heart.”
It’s hard to imagine the athlete considered the greatest in any other sport longing to be more like their rivals. The idea of Michael Jordan wanting to channel Magic Johnson or Tiger Woods wishing he was more Phil Mickelson-esque is preposterous.
But O’Sullivan has never shied away from expressing what he feels at any given moment, even if it seems illogical to an outsider and inconsistent with what he said as recently as the previous day.
Despite 2024 having seen him win multiple tournaments and reach numerous other finals and semi-finals, the world No 5 has recently spoken about his belief that his snooker game is in decline and that he’s not the player he was a few years ago. It’s part of the reason he’s withdrawn from the British Open and Wuhan Open in recent weeks, with the upcoming Northern Ireland Open also likely to be skipped, and he is in no rush to set a definitive timeline for his return to the baize.
“If you go by other people, you can see that gradually they lose whatever they had,” he explains. “That’s been happening for quite a while for me. The thing that frustrates me is I’m not playing great. Once that zip isn’t there, I don’t know… there’s not much fun in it at the moment.
“I’m enjoying just having time to myself, not having to practice, not having to be away. Maybe I’ll play in the next one in November (International Championship in Nanjing, China]. I’ll see – if I’m still enjoying not playing, then I won’t play. I’ll delay it until I feel like it.”
Even a Ronnie O’Sullivan at 70 per cent could still compete at the top end of the snooker tour and he’s worked closely with renowned sports psychologist Dr Steve Peters over the years to help him through previous dips.
“I can always work with Steve – it’s whether I want to do that,” he adds. “Do I want to engage, invest that amount of time and energy into it? At the moment it’s definitely not something I want to do. Maybe in another three or six months but at the moment I’m enjoying doing whatever I want.
“I’ve won most of my tournaments not playing great. I know you don’t have to play well to win. I think I need to play better than I am now, though. I used to be able to play not great and win but I don’t think I can do that anymore. I think I’ve got to play well to have a chance of winning a tournament. The margins are a lot less for me, I suppose.
“At least I’m not sitting here saying that having not won a world title or not won a tournament. I’ve got plenty in the trophy cabinet. I’ve got no regrets.”
O’Sullivan is speaking as his third autobiography, Unbreakable, is released in paperback and insists that after those books, plus his documentary, he’s now finished producing memoirs.
He also dismisses a suggestion that he could follow in Hendry’s footsteps and start his own YouTube channel, a la the Scot’s popular Cue Tips where interviews a variety of guests while playing a frame of snooker against them.
“Nah. I don’t like meeting people,” laughs O’Sullivan. “I like people, I just don’t like meeting them... I see some of the people he interviews and I think ‘If you told me I had to go and talk to that guy…’ I don’t know them, I’d just be dreading it, so nah, I’m a more behind the scenes sort of person. That’s why you don’t hear much about me…”
The debate over where the next generation of snooker superstars are coming from has raged for years. With the sport’s biggest names almost all in their forties, there is an eagerness for the sport to find a younger crossover star.
With the decline of the previously thriving amateur snooker scene of the 1980s and 1990s that helped create the likes of O’Sullivan, John Higgins and Mark Williams, it is now harder for a British player to really hone their craft before entering the professional ranks.
The popularity of snooker in China has grown hugely over the past two decades. With multiple ranking events hosted there, 12 of the world’s top 50 players hail from the country. And although the long-promised Chinese revolution is yet to lead to their first world champion, O’Sullivan remains convinced that is where snooker’s centre of power will shift.
“They just put more into their academies and their youngsters and create an environment where they can become brilliant players,” he explains. “It’s a bit like the Kenyans with running – they all train together and then pick the three or four best to go to the Olympics. That’s what they do with snooker in China.
“That academy set-up is similar to the amateur snooker scene back in the Eighties and Nineties. Just being in that type of environment, you learned a lot from the other players. There was always healthy competition and rivalries – you see someone doing well and it drove you on to think ‘I’ll work harder’. They have that with the academy system, which I think is a great, great idea.
“It’s kind of impossible for the young players in the UK without that. Maybe one can come through? But it’s so much easier if you can surround yourself with other fantastic players. Watch, learn and pick up stuff. It’s being in that environment, it’s such a huge help.”
And if anyone knows what it takes to reach the very top, it’s the greatest snooker player of all time.
