Maximum breaks to shoeless mistakes – never a dull moment with Ronnie O’Sullivan

Ten years ago Ronnie O’Sullivan walked out of the Crucible with his fourth world title and a threat to retire which would have left question marks hanging over his status in the snooker pantheon.

He may already have been recognised as his sport’s most prodigious talent, but he remained adrift of the career statistics of his predecessors Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry, his longevity challenged by inner demons that were never far from the surface.

As early as 2011 O’Sullivan summed up the agony of the expectations that surrounded him, revealing: “When you turn it on, it’s a great feeling, and when you’re not you feel like you’re letting people down.

“You feel like you’re letting yourself down, you’re wasting your time, and nobody’s having a good time and they’re waiting for something to happen and it ain’t happening. That can be quite demoralising sometimes.”

Those question marks were erased on Monday night when O’Sullivan saw off Judd Trump to win his seventh world crown, equalling Hendry’s Crucible record but signalling an unsurpassed achievement in a career defined by glory and controversy in equal measure.

For all those moments like the five-minute maximum he served up against Mick Price in 1997, there were reprimands and more admissions that gave a glimpse into his troubled mind, as he struggled to sustain the enthusiasm to chase down Hendry’s record that he always knew was well within his grasp.

As a teenager, O’Sullivan had the game’s established stars running scared. He won 74 of his first 76 matches as a professional, at the qualifying school in Blackpool, and before long was crushing his heroes, Davis and Hendry among his victims when he claimed that first UK title in Preston a week before turning 18.

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