By Elliott West
“I’d love to win this tournament and even when it was a ranking tournament, it was a fantastic event. It is a great city here in Shanghai and I enjoy coming to this place. I love to do well in the really big tournaments and this is a very important one”.
Ronnie O’Sullivan
Introduction
This week sees the return of the Shanghai Masters, one of 5 trips for the main tour to the Far East. China is somewhere where Ronnie O’Sullivan loves to come to. He loves the atmosphere, the culture, cuisine and has plenty of friends here. A title that he sees as worth the effort and one that he has won four times previously in 2009, 2017, and 2019. He is the greatest player of the modern era with a CV that makes any snooker player revere his talent. A list that reads 7 world titles, 7 UK titles, 7 Masters titles, 39 ranking titles, 78 titles overall, 1,203 centuries, 15 maximums, a 29-year title span and current world number one.
So far Ronnie has notched up 15 victories in Shanghai with his latest victim being Ali Carter in the last 16 with an impressive 6-3 win, taking him into the last 8 of the tournament. A match that consisted of a break of 101 and four half-centuries. He now has set up another El Clasico with his long-time rival, the Wizard of Wishaw, John Higgins. The last player to beat O’Sullivan in Shanghai was Michael Holt in the last 16 of the 2016 Shanghai Masters with a 5-2 victory. A win that you have to delve into the Snooker Almanac to find. One that Ronnie erased from his memory afterwards and not one he will be thinking about this year.
The Tour de Force
Set aside his mental health issues and the car crash media interviews of the past, this GOAT of snooker is unbeatable when he smells the blood of victory. His game oozes the genius of Alex Higgins, Ray Reardon and Jimmy White, taking snooker to the highest death com. Like the mastery of Mozart or the panache of Van Gogh, he steers the balls into the pockets. They are the chess pieces that he regularly sends into checkmate. O’Sullivan fears no one and worships very few. He is cocky, brash and sometimes juvenile but he has nothing to lose. He could put his cue away now and ride into the retirement sunset but he secretly loves the snooker drug too much to do that.
When O’Sullivan is motivated, he is like a knife spreading butter. You have to play out of your skin to beat him and if you do, most tend to lose their next match, unable to heal the battle scars in time. Ronnie is ruthless, a player who pounces on his opponents’ mistakes and puts the frame to bed when this happens. He doesn’t take any prisoners and hoovers up the balls faster than the most expensive Dyson. O’Sullivan is a natural and if he hadn’t taken up snooker would have been a brilliant tennis player, golfer or long-distance runner. He knows how to push through the pain thresholds and come out focused on the other side. This is his bread and butter, one that he has been doing since he was knee-high to a grasshopper. His cue is his signature pen and boy does he write with it.
The Winning Line
With Mark Allen and Mark Williams dispatched, I can only see John Higgins and Luca Brecel being Ronnie’s competition. Both of these players can crack and they will have to play their A+ game to beat him. O’Sullivan secretly loves setting records and although he praises John Higgins off the table, he licks his lips when he beats him. Higgins is prone to middle-age mistakes and his concentration is prone to wander. Similarly, Brecel is patchy, brilliant in his pomp and a possible contender for the Shanghai crown if Ronnie falters. Judd Trump and Mark Selby also have their chances.
I will stick my neck out and say Ronnie will win this year’s Shanghai Masters. If he continues to play the way he is playing, I really can’t see him not lifting the title. He loves China and that fuels him. When he doesn’t have any negativity in his head, the clouds just part for him and provide a clear path to the winning line. Win or lose, O’Sullivan is the modern-day Joe Davis. He eats his opponents for breakfast, lunch and dinner and goes for seconds every time. Zero to one hundred in seconds, he is the Maserati of his time, elegant as an ice skater and as proficient as a ballet dancer at the Russian Bolshoi Ballet Academy. A Premier League GOAT.
