Ronnie O'Sullivan wins prestigious snooker award for history-making performance

The annual World Snooker Tour awards celebrate special performances and achievements from players across the recently-completed top flight season.

There are several categories, with the most prestigious accolade being the ‘Player of the Year’ which this year was collected by Zhao Xintong for winning four titles during the campaign, more than any other cueist. Former world champion Zhao is the first Chinese player to add their to name to the roll of honour.

Despite not winning a professional title for a second successive season - the first time that has happened to him - Ronnie O’Sullivan was on this year’s list of award winners.

The seven-time world champion won the ‘Performance of the Year’ gong for his astonishing semi-final display at the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters in Jeddah last August.

During his last four encounter with Chris Wakelin, O’Sullivan became the first player in professional snooker history to make multiple maximum 147 breaks within the same session of a match.

The Rocket’s opening feat of green baize perfection came in frame one - a record-extending 16th maximum of his career, but his first since 2018.

O’Sullivan followed it up with another total clearance in the next frame - this time a run of 142 - before going on to establish a 3-1 mid-session interval lead.

On resumption, Wakelin took back-to-back frames to level at 3-3 but O’Sullivan sensationally fashioned another 147 in frame seven to nudge in front. Breaks of 67 and 50 helped him secure frame eight, and then an effort of 134 in the next - his fourth total clearance of the contest - got him across the line as a 6-3 victor.

With a special prize in place from the World Snooker Tour for anyone who could compile two 147s across that season’s four biggest events, O’Sullivan’s double maximum earned him a £147,000 bonus, as well as two thirds of an additional £50,000 purse on offer just for the Saudi Masters. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh - who struck a 147 earlier in the tournament - received the other third.

A few months earlier, Welsh youngster Jackson Page became the first player to make two 147s within the same professional match at the 2025 World Snooker Championship qualifiers, although his contributions were spread across different sessions and days.

This wasn’t O’Sullivan’s only signature moment of the 2025/26 snooker season. At the 2026 World Open in Yushan, China, the 50-year-old Englishman made a world record break of 153 in the opening frame of his quarter-final tie with Ryan Day.

Such an effort was made possible due to O’Sullivan receiving a freeball - after Day had failed to escape from a snooker - with all 15 reds still remaining on the table.

Only once before in top tier snooker history had a break of more than 147 been registered - that was a 148 from Jamie Burnett during the qualifying rounds for the 2004 UK Championship at Pontins Prestatyn.

Both in Saudi and China, O’Sullivan had to settle for being runner-up; being pipped 10-9 by Neil Robertson in the Middle East, and ousted 10-7 by an inspired Un-Nooh - who constructed another 147 - in the Far East.