Ronnie O'Sullivan

 D.O.B. 05 Dec 1975




Lives Chigwell, Essex



Last 5 Seasons1-1-5-3-1



Turned Pro 1992



Ranking Tournament Victories 22 - UK Championship 1993, 1997, 2001, 2007; British Open 1994; Asian Classic 1996; German Open 1996; Scottish Open 1998, 2000; China Open 1999, 2000; World Championship 2001, 2004, 2008; European Open 2003; Irish Masters 2003, 2005; Welsh Open 2004, 2005; Grand Prix 2004; Northern Ireland Trophy 2008; Shanghai Masters 2009



Last season World Snooker Tour prize money

£199,240



Highest Tournament Break 147 - nine times

O’Sullivan made an excellent start to the 2009/10 season by winning the first ranking event of the campaign, though in the end that was as good as it got for the Rocket as it proved his only title.

The Chigwell player’s unprecedented natural talent makes him an obvious favourite for the first tournament after the summer break, when ring-rustiness plays a part for everyone. And so it proved at the Roewe Shanghai Masters as he beat Graeme Dott, Marco Fu, Ding Junhui and John Higgins – losing just six frames in those four matches – to reach the final.

Pitched against rising Chinese star Liang Wenbo, O’Sullivan nevertheless had at least half of the home crowd behind him and thrilled them with a fine display to win 10-5.

“I was only able to play flamboyant snooker in two or three frames,” insisted the Essex cueman. “The rest of it was steady, hard match snooker and I needed patience. I’m happy to have got through it, won the tournament and got my season off to a good start. It’s very satisfying to get a victory, especially here in China where snooker is so popular. It’s a good feeling.”

John Higgins, a player frequently described by O’Sullivan as the best in the world, proved the Rocket’s nemesis in the next three ranking events. The Scot beat him 5-4 at the Grand Prix, 9-8 in a semi-final thriller at the Pukka Pies UK Championship after O’Sullivan had rallied from 8-2 down to 8-8, and 6-4 in the last four of the totesport.com Welsh Open.

These results were punctuated by runs to the finals of snooker’s two most prestigious invitation events. In the Premier League he lost to Shaun Murphy, ending a run of five consecutive titles for O’Sullivan, in an event where the 25-second shot clock gives him a distinct advantage due to his rapid break-building and instinctive snooker brain.

The Pokerstars.com Masters is another event where O’Sullivan has shown exceptional consistency in recent years, reaching six of the last seven finals. He has now appeared in nine Wembley finals in all, equalling Stephen Hendry’s record.

Of the previous eight he had won four, and a fifth title looked inevitable when he led Mark Selby 9-6. But comeback specialist Selby proved stronger in the closing stages as he condemned O’Sullivan to a 10-9 defeat.

“For 17 years I’ve been playing like a plum, and being hot and cold made me depressed. I can’t do that to myself any more. The frustration is that if I got it right I would smash all these players up, I’d demolish them," said the runner-up.”

O’Sullivan was unable to get it right in the remainder of the season, and suffered a 13-11 reverse against Selby in the quarter-finals of the Betfred.com World Snooker Championship. His World No 1 status was gone, as he slipped down to third place.

The 2009 Masters had seen O’Sullivan showcase his extraordinary natural ability by winning the tournament with a cue he had picked up just a day before his opening match. After beating Selby 10-8 in the final he said: "It’s got to be my greatest achievement, to win it with a new cue.”

The 2007/08 season was arguably the best of O’Sullivan’s career as he made three maximums to take his career tally to a record nine, and won the UK Championship as well as his third World Championship. His 18-8 defeat of Ali Carter in the Crucible final saw him take a step towards fulfilling his massive potential.

He first won the world title in 2001 when he beat Higgins 18-14 and took his second crown in 2004 when he easily saw off Graeme Dott 18-8.

O’Sullivan’s fast, attacking style and charismatic personality have made him snooker’s most popular player across the globe.

Blessed with the rare gift of being able to play to a high standard both left-handed and right-handed, he made the fastest 147 on record at the 1997 World Championship, a blur of potting which lasted 5 minutes and 20 seconds.

In a match against Carter at the 2007 Northern Ireland Trophy, O’Sullivan became the first player ever to make five centuries (including a 147) in a ranking event best-of-nine match, winning the game 5-2.

Away from snooker, he is dedicated to long distance running, a pastime which he believes has helped him enormously in his battle against depression. He has become a close friend of the artist Damien Hirst since the pair met at the Crucible in 2008.

O’Sullivan has a daughter called Lily, born in February 2006, and a son called Ronnie born in June 2007.