Will Ronnie O'Sullivan win a record eighth world championship in 2024?

Ronnie O’Sullivan is on the cusp of his greatest ever season as he heads to the 2024 World Snooker Championship looking to complete a ‘Triple Crown Grand Slam’ for the first time in his career and secure a record eighth Crucible world title.

In the most remarkable of snooker careers, O’Sullivan’s 2023/24 campaign has already been a very special one, although it could get even better for the Englishman as he heads to the final event of the term.

Perhaps some of us are guilty at times for turning tournaments into the ‘Ronnie O’Sullivan Show’ when he is about, but the extra attention ‘The Rocket’ will receive for his trip to Sheffield in 2024 is justified, despite there being a star cast of very serious contenders for snooker’s premier prize this year.

Of course, seven-time world title winner O’Sullivan had the opportunity to become the most decorated world champion of the modern era last year, but anticipation and expectations are higher this time round.

Going into the 2023 installment as the defending world champion, O’Sullivan was at the end of an inconsistent season, during which he did claim two big invitational events, but failed to reach a single ranking event semi-final and qualify for the final two Players Series events.

This year, the 48-year-old travels to Yorkshire with five big trophies already in the bag and two-thirds of a seasonal Triple Crown ticked off. Well over one million pound in prize money earned since September, O’Sullivan has also retained his world number one status throughout the season despite several players having been within striking distance of taking that off him. All this from only 11 completed competition outings to date.

Reviewing O’Sullivan’s super season, so far

O’Sullivan’s season began in September with the Shanghai Masters; an event returning to the professional tour for the first time since 2019 due to covid cancellations.

A lucrative invitational that he was already in love with having won the last three editions, defending champ O’Sullivan defeated Ali Carter 6-3 in the opening round before coming back from 5-2 down in frames and 58-0 behind in points to pip John Higgins 6-5 in a thrilling quarter-final recovery.

He then got the better of Mark Selby 10-7 in the last four and current Crucible king Luca Brecel 11-9 in the final to win the Shanghai title for a fourth consecutive edition and extend his winning streak in the event to 19 matches.

The first ranking event action of the term for O’Sullivan came a few weeks later, although preparation was not ideal having just returned from an exhibition in Hong Kong and carrying an elbow injury. He did win three matches in Brentwood but lost 4-2 in the last 16 to an inspired Zhang Anda who went on to reach the final.

Back in China, O’Sullivan won several matches across his next two appearances, but bowed out to Lyu Haotian in the quarter-finals of the new Wuhan Open, and eventual champion Zhang in the semi-finals of the International Championship in Tianjin.

A busy time for O’Sullivan, he withdrew from defending the Champion of Champions due to health reasons, meanwhile away from the baize he was in the spotlight as he helped launch his documentary film ‘Ronnie O’Sullivan: The Edge of Everything’.

Just a few weeks later, O’Sullivan celebrated winning a record-extending eighth UK Championship crown at the Barbican in York. Having survived two deciding frames earlier in the week, he made breaks of 100, 74 and 129 in the final three frames as he broke free from Ding Junhui in the title match to triumph 10-7.

In the new year, O’Sullivan met Ding again, this time in the opening round of the Masters in London. The Chinese cueist lifted the roof with a maximum 147 break during the contest, but it was the home hero who advanced 6-3. Further wins against Barry Hawkins and Shaun Murphy put him into his 14th Masters final where he recovered from 6-3 down, stringing together the final four frames to deny Ali Carter 10-7 to claim snooker’s most prestigious invitational title for an unprecedented eighth time.

The week after his trip to the Alexandra Palace, O’Sullivan was back on stage at the World Grand Prix where he competed alongside the top 32 players from this season’s one-year list. After navigating the first three rounds, he produced arguably the best display of the season when he registered four century breaks, a 79 and a 90 in a 6-1 win against Ding Junhui in the semi-finals.

In trouble against Judd Trump in the final, though, O’Sullivan responded to 4-0 and 6-3 deficits, running out a 10-7 victor to lift trophies in consecutive weekends.

O’Sullivan’s 16-match winning streak on the professional circuit came to an abrupt end, though, when he lost to Mark Selby 6-0 in the quarter-finals of the Players Championship towards the end of February.

Having withdrawn from the Championship League Invitational after a day, O’Sullivan made his way to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia for the inaugural World Masters of Snooker. So typical of O’Sullivan at an elite, one-table competition such as this, he dispatched John Higgins 4-0, Trump 4-1 and then Brecel 5-2 in the final - compiling six century breaks in the process - to collect the big first prize.

Since his Middle East excursion, O'Sullivan made the last 16 of the World Open in Yushan, China where he was ousted 5-4 by Hossein Vafaei in a dramatic black ball climax. His latest appearance was at the recent Tour Championship in Manchester; he defeated Carter and Gary Wilson for yet another final date, although he lost out on more silverware as he went down 10-5 to an in-form Mark Williams, having been 5-3 up.

Glory at the Crucible Theatre this May would confirm O’Sullivan’s best ever year on tour. The tournament favourite with the bookmakers, an eighth world championship crown would see him become only the fourth player in history to win all three of the sport’s Triple Crown events within the same season, and at the same time overtake Hendry at the top of the list for the most Crucible crowns.