How Ronnie O'Sullivan's bold prediction came true after Wu Yize's Crucible title glory

Chinese 22-year-old Wu became the second youngest-ever winner of the world snooker championship on Monday evening when he ousted Shaun Murphy 18-17 in a Crucible classic to claim the professional game’s ultimate prize. It was the first world final to go the distance since 2002.

Many pundits and players had been keeping tabs on Wu’s green baize progress since winning the world under-21 championship as a 14-year-old in 2018, and turning pro in 2021, and he has made a rapid rise into the top echelons over the past couple of seasons.

During the 2024/25 campaign, the youngster reached his first two ranking event finals at the English and Scottish Opens, although his big career breakthrough came last November when he lifted his first top flight trophy at the International Championship on home soil in Nanjing.

Following that triumph over John Higgins in the final, Wu propelled himself into the world’s elite top 16 for the first time, securing a debut for the Masters invitational several weeks later where he was within a few pots of making the final.

Coming into this year’s world championship - only his third Crucible appearance - Wu had never previously won a match on snooker’s grandest stage before, but was a seed player in the main draw for the first time.

After breezing past compatriot Lei Peifan 10-2 to break his duck at the venue, a mature Wu navigated four-time world champion Mark Selby 13-11 in the last 16 before seeing off the last remaining qualifier, Hossein Vafaei, in the quarter-finals.

He was then involved in a remarkable semi-final affair with Mark Allen - which featured a ‘record-breaking’ 100-minute frame, and his opponent missing match-ball black - before pipping Murphy in an epic.

O’Sullivan issued high-praise for ‘definite’ future world champion Wu

Record 41-time ranking event O’Sullivan - who has seen swathes of cueists come and go during his 34-year top-flight career - was one of those keeping Wu firmly on his radar.

Speaking about the new world champion and world number four at the World Grand Prix in Hong Kong back in February, O’Sullivan - having spent time with Wu - made a bold prediction has that already come true.

“I think Wu Yize is going to be world number one, I’d give him three years, definitely going to be world champion very, very soon, phenomenal player” said ‘The Rocket’ to the World Snooker Tour.

“A lot of people liken him to Paul Hunter but I think he’s more like a modern-day Steve Davis.

“He’s more dynamic, more cue power, more aggressive, has more scoring power but his positional play for me is on the level of Steve Davis, everything always goes in the middle of the hole.

“I practiced with him for two or three days in Hong Kong not long ago and it’s not until you practice with someone that you can really appreciate how good they are. After day two I was like, this kid is really special.

“I’d just love to go and see him fulfil his potential as a professional. He’s only 22. I expect him to do a lot of great things in snooker.

“It’s important to have players that you like to watch and he’s definitely one of the players that I’d watch all day long. Never get bored or tired of watching him play, a phenomenal talent. Snooker’s very lucky to have someone like that coming in, so young, so good, great character.”

It wasn’t the first or only time that 50-year-old O’Sullivan had issued high praise to Wu. When chatting with Stephen Hendry on the fellow seven-time Crucible champion’s CueTips YouTube channel, O’Sullivan named Wu, and another young Chinese talent - Chang Bingyu - as up-and-coming players who he seriously rated.

During this year’s world championship, former title winner and BBC pundit John Parrott revealed that he spoke with O’Sullivan in the practice room at the Crucible whilst Wu was also in there, with O’Sullivan saying to Parrott: “he's going to be a world champion” about the Chinese cueist.

O’Sullivan - who texted Wu during the world final to offer support - isn’t the only top snooker star to have labelled Wu as a future world champion in recent months before he actually achieved it.

In an interview with Sporting Life earlier this year, Murphy - whose prediction would come true at his expense - described Wu as a ‘phenomenal talent’ who will be world champion one day.

I’m not sure either O’Sullivan or Murphy thought that day would come quite so soon, though.