Ronnie O’Sullivan has a lot of highlights to pick from when he looks back over his epic career, but has chosen the two favourite wins.
The 49-year-old has won the UK Championship and Masters eight times each, while he has claimed the World Championship seven times.
The 23 Triple Crown titles on his CV is a record, as is his tally of 41 ranking title wins.
Many would expect his 2013 World Championship win to be one of his favourites, as O’Sullivan turned up at the Crucible after taking a year off and still lifted the trophy.
However, it was another Sheffield success that stands out to the Rocket, along with some glory in Newport.
‘There’s a couple that stand out,’ O’Sullivan told TNT Sports on his favourite triumphs. ‘I think the one that really stood out for me is 2012 when I won the World Championship. I was playing great and having my son there to watch and some very close friends.
‘I never expected my game to get to that point where I felt comfortable in my mind. It was unbelievable. I think that stands out for me.’
The Rocket then picked out his 2014 Welsh Open triumph, when he beat Ding Junhui in the final with a maximum.
Although he added in the Masters title he won a month earlier, putting the two as a package for how he felt before those triumphs came.
‘I think the other one that most people wouldn’t even think about was 2014 when I played Ding Junhui in the final of the Welsh Open,’ said O’Sullivan.
‘Just before that in January, before the Masters I was in my friend’s house in Sheffield. The anxiety got so bad that my stomach was hurting, it was like I’d been beaten up. I said, “I can’t go and play in the Masters” and it got that bad that they all said, “don’t play, just pull out.” Once I’d made that decision to pull out I felt happy, as the day went on the anxiety got less.
‘I knew it was the build-up and the thought of having to go and play at the Masters, because it’s big pressure for me, London tournament.
‘Come that night I felt good and my mate went: “Let’s go down to the Masters and play because it’s better than pulling out.”
‘I thought I could do that now. I went there and played unbelievable snooker. That’s probably the best I ever played. I beat [Mark] Selby in the final 10-4. I destroyed the field and played unbelievable. How’ve I gone from that on Sunday morning to a week later playing the best snooker I’ve ever played?
‘Then I carried that form on into the next tournament at the Welsh Open. I beat everyone 4-0, 4-0, 4-1. 6-1, 6-2, whatever.
‘I was playing Ding in the final, beat him 9-3 and had a 147 in the last frame and three or four weeks ago I was in bits. I was going to book myself in the priory, hand a doctor’s note in and say I couldn’t play in the Masters.
‘I always remember that I never felt so bad, but once I’d took the pressure off of not playing the body just relaxed.
‘I think 2014 Welsh Open and the Masters and 2012, I can’t choose one, because there’s so many. But if I had to pick two, they are probably the two best times of my snooker playing career.’
O’Sullivan has picked out his 2012 World Championship win as his finest performance before.
He beat Peter Ebdon, Mark Williams, Neil Robertson, Matthew Stevens and then Ali Carter in the final, with his 13-10 quarter-final win over Robertson the closest match he played that tournament.
‘When I played in the 2012 World Championship, I played a lot all season, tournaments and practicing,’ O’Sullivan told INTER SPORT running on Instagram Live in 2020.
‘Maybe about eight or nine days before, I had a practice session and it was so bad, the guy beat me 9-0. I thought “I’ve got to go to the World Championship next week and if I keep playing the way I’m playing I probably won’t be very optimistic about my chances.”
‘I just left my cue under the table, I didn’t come back to it the day before I had to go to Sheffield so I had eight or nine days off.
‘I went to Sheffield and I’d absolutely lost nothing but what I gained was the enthusiasm and the hunger to want to play snooker.
‘All that year of playing and practicing hadn’t gone anywhere, but the 2012 World Championship I couldn’t have played any better. I totally put that down to adopting the philosophy of tapering off.
‘Maybe before I’d have played hard during that week, got to Sheffield and thought “it’s not happening” and mentally not been in the right shape to even get through the first round.
‘Because I’d tapered off, I trusted that I’d put everything in place, 2012 was by far the best performance I put in as a professional snooker player.’