When Zhao Xintong beat Ronnie O’Sullivan and went on to win the World Championship earlier this year there was much talk of changing of guards and passing of torches, but just wait one second, ladies and gentlemen.
The Rocket was a shadow of his brilliant best at the Crucible in April, but still made the semi-finals quite comfortably before being blown away by the Cyclone in a heavy 17-7 defeat.
Even in a bruising, one-sided loss O’Sullivan was a unique spectacle as he changed his ferrule and tip mid-match, seen as a wild risk of a man who felt he had little to lose given how he was playing. The match was lost and maybe some confidence as the Rocket mused on if there was much point on playing on if that was now his level of performance.
Zhao became a new superstar with his Sheffield triumph but there is no question who remained the headline act of the game, the only question was whether O’Sullivan’s snooker would continue to match his status.
A brief cameo at the Shanghai Masters earlier this summer suggested he was getting somewhere, without fully blasting back towards his best.
This week the Rocket landed at one of his new favourites places, Saudi Arabia, and he brought his most spectacular stuff with him.
Even when O’Sullivan was winning events regularly a couple of seasons ago, performances were often efficient rather than effervescent.
It looked like that might be the case again in Jeddah in early wins over Joe O’Connor and Chang Bingyu, but the dramatic 6-5 quarter-final victory over world number two Kyren Wilson gave the Rocket the confidence to unpack his bag of tricks and put on a show.
What followed was as good a performance as you will see on a snooker table in his semi-final with Chris Wakelin.
A 147 was his very first contribution to the match, followed by a 142. Wakelin, to his immense credit, kept his head from spinning to fight back to 3-3, but then came the second fireworks display.
It was absurd snooker. It is the likes you hear of in tales from practice rooms but not the kind you see in ranking event semi-finals with £100,000 the difference between winning and losing.
In making the first 147, the 16th of his career, O’Sullivan became the oldest player to knock in a maximum at 49 years old. He broke his own record by a couple of hours later in the evening with his 17th.
Not even O’Sullivan could replicate that wizardry in the final, but he could again put on a memorable show in a different way.
Neil Robertson finished the first session of the showpiece 6-2 ahead and then won the first frame of the evening. This was not in the script for the Rocket’s global fan club.
But in front or behind, a burst of brilliance is always within reach. Breaks of 139, 97, 89, 57 and 80 in consecutive frames and the score was 7-7 in no time at all, the Aussie barely believing what was happening.
‘I’ve never experienced anything like that before in my life,’ Robertson said of Ronnie’s rearguard romp.
The Thunder from Down Under is not one to wilt either and it was he who eventually got over the line in a deciding frame, a 10-9 winner.
Winning or losing at this stage of the Rocket’s career, what difference does it make, really? Long cemented as the sport’s GOAT and most successful player, would another trinket from Saudi add to his legacy? No.
An eighth World Championship title would, such is the cachet of the Crucible crown, but really any other title is just another bauble on the world’s best-decorated Christmas tree. One more sausage on the planet’s biggest mixed grill.
What feels more important now is that O’Sullivan is still absolutely must-see TV, the hottest ticket in town. Certainly of the relatively small town of snooker, but even of the vast metropolis of British sport.
Liverpool opened the Premier League season in a thrilling win over Bournemouth at the same time O’Sullivan played Wakelin on Friday night and social media felt as rocked by the Rocket as it was by the Reds.
You cannot turn off even during his relatively lean spells because there remains unmatchable magnificence ready to come out at any stage.
Others have magic in their cues. Judd Trump and Zhao can conjure up dazzling spells, but no one can bewitch like the Essex Exocet, even as the sorcerer approaches his 50th birthday.
This is not a veteran grimly hanging on, trying to replicate his glory days. We are still lounging in the sunshine of his glory days.
‘I’ve never played that well in a match before,’ O’Sullivan said of his semi-final masterclass.
If that’s what he can do four months shy of 50, after already compiling the greatest CV in snooker, then the Ronnie O’Sullivan show looks set to enchant and delight fans for many years to come.
Others will win more tournaments, but snooker’s shining light is not ready to pass his torch yet.