Is he the undisputed biggest participant of all time?
Ronnie O’Sullivan has gained seven world titles… however he is nowhere close to this participant (Picture: Getty)
Ronnie O’Sullivan is thought to be the best snooker participant of all time. He’s transcended the game and has grow to be a family title, however some is perhaps stunned to listen to he doesn’t come near topping the listing of file World Championship titles.
The Rocket has lifted seven Crucible titles all through his profession, which is degree with fellow star Stephen Hendry. O’Sullivan has dubbed Hendry the perfect participant he’s performed towards up to now, however there are three gamers with extra world titles.
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Considered one of them is John Pullman, whom O’Sullivan was aiming to attract degree with this yr, earlier than struggling defeat within the last-16 to five-time winner, John Higgins. Pullman himself is degree on eight titles with Fred Davis – the 2 of them dominating the World Championship between the late Forties and Sixties.
However even they discover themselves trailing the file champion, whose tally of 15 is unlikely to be overwhelmed anytime quickly, if in any respect! The person in query is Joe Davis, who gained a jaw–dropping 14 consecutive World Championship titles between 1927 and 1940, earlier than including a fifteenth to his complete after the warfare in 1946.
In complete, it’s eight greater than O’Sullivan’s present haul, however past that, Davis has been credited with shaping the trendy sport with practices which might be commonplace immediately. They embody break-building, with the Sultan of Snooker mentioned to be the primary participant to convey that to the desk.
What’s extra, Davis is even believed to have been an enormous driver behind the invention of the World Championship himself. The Derbyshire-born star satisfied the Billiards Affiliation and Management Council to introduce knowledgeable snooker championship, and from that time on, the occasion we all know and love was born.
Joe Davis is the file World Championship holder (Picture: Getty)
The rationale Davis and Pullman aren’t spoken about an excessive amount of these days is that again then, snooker was not practically as fashionable as it’s now and they also did not have as a lot competitors to be the perfect. The fashionable period of snooker was solely born in 1969 when the World Championship was modified again to a knockout match.
O’Sullivan has beforehand waxed lyrical about one other Davis – the good Steve Davis – and informed the BBC: “I don’t regard myself as the best. I’m considered one of them, possibly. You’ve acquired Hendry, (Steve) Davis, and my hat’s within the ring with them. I’ve had a unique profession to them.
“They did it over a 10-year interval, whereas I’ve kind of gone off monitor, acquired myself collectively, again off monitor, then acquired myself again collectively. I’ve needed to go on longer to get what I’ve acquired. I used to be a bit all around the present at occasions with stuff happening off the desk and that may have an effect on the way you carry out on it. Hendry and Davis just about had every little thing fitted round them to be targeted on snooker and I didn’t have that.”
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