Snooker’s greatest showman O'Sullivan revealed real Ronnie in historic triumph at World Championship

Sometimes it’s the ones you most expect. Ronnie O’Sullivan came to Sheffield this year newly installed as world no.1 and chasing history. He leaves the steel city confirmed as snooker’s greatest ever player with more success surely ahead of him.

Ad/> His 18-13 defeat of Judd Trump in the World Championship final made for fascinating viewing, but it was the scenes afterwards which will live long in the memory, O’Sullivan in floods of tears as he held on to Trump before hugging two of his children. World Championship'He was in a cell on his own' — Emotional O'Sullivan on dad seeing win this time2 HOURS AGO This was the real Ronnie, a big-hearted, emotional man with snooker running through his veins experiencing the dawning realisation that he had tied Stephen Hendry’s modern-day record of seven world titles. It was a moment for the ages.

Later, with typical directness, he described the whole tournament as “torture”. But for O’Sullivan, the pain is the point. In everything he does, he goes all in.

Some players, maybe most, are content to earn as decent a living as they can from snooker without ever pushing themselves to breaking point. The same cannot be said about O’Sullivan, whose love/hate relationship with a sport he has bestrode like a colossus for three decades is well documented. When O’Sullivan goes running, he’s not out for a jog.

He takes his body to its limits. In snooker, it’s his mind that is tested to the full. In 2011, beginning to struggle, he went to see Dr Steve Peters, a psychiatrist who has made his name working with sportspeople.