SNOOKER
Ronnie O’Sullivan proves his greatness year after year — but he pays a price, says Simon Barnes
Envy the victors by all means. That’s what they ’re there for. Just make sure you envy them for the right reasons. There’s a clip you can find on YouTube – search for “Ronnie O’Sullivan mic’d up” – that featured in last year’s Amazon Prime Video documentary The Edge of Everything.
It was filmed in 2022, when O’Sullivan won snooker’s World Championship for the seventh time – equalling Stephen Hendry’s record and making him, by every possible tie-breaker, the greatest of all time – and forgot he was wired for sound. Or perhaps in the intensity of the moment, he simply didn’t care.
Be sure you have a strong head for emotion before seeking out this clip. It’s slightly intrusive, of course, but O’Sullivan was a consenting adult, and everyone comes out of it with credit. First O’Sullivan embraces his beaten opponent, Judd Trump, and then, racked by sobs, O’Sullivan tells him: “It f ****** kills me.”
A few moments later he is hugging his children, Lily and Ronnie Jr, and sobbing harder than ever. He tells them, “I can’t do this any more, I can’t! It’ ll kill me!” So if you envy the victors, do so for their exceptional talent – not because you think their life is all smiles.
I spoke to O’Sullivan when the documentary came out, and naturally I asked him about this sequence. It isn’t snooker that affects him so deeply, he said. That’s not what will kill him. It’s the event. It’s the World Championship, and the relentlessness of it all. Every time you climb an impossibly steep hill, there’s another one, even steeper, waiting for you.
O’Sullivan is a special player, but not a special case in this sense. He just shows his emotion more, and is more open. The World Championship, which continues this week at the Crucible in Sheff ield, gets to every competitor. It’s the sport’s supreme challenge, so there wouldn’t be much point if it were easy.
Partly it’s the format: 17 days of action, morning, noon and night. The first round is a relative sprint at the best of 19 frames, though that would count as a lengthy f inal in most other tournaments. Round two and the quarter-finals are the best of 25, and after that you play the best of 33 in the semi-f inals (this year from Thursday 2 to Saturday 4 May). If you’re still standing, the final is played out over two days (Sunday 5 and Monday 6 May) as a best-of-35 showpiece, when it’s just you and your opponent with the rest of the world looking over your shoulder.
Of course, you also have to do it in the fearsome intimacy of the Cru
