Ronnie O’Sullivan launches his latest bid to capture a record-breaking eighth world title on Tuesday afternoon.
The Rocket gets his 2026 World Snooker Championship campaign under way against He Guoqiang, one of the four debutants in the field this year.
It’s a daunting prospect for the 25 year-old, who will face a giant of the game who made his maiden Crucible bow all the way back in 1993.
In the three-plus decades since then, there has been a palpable concoction of expectation and excitement when O’Sullivan has arrived in Sheffield.
The Englishman lost to Alan McManus in the first round on his debut, but it wasn’t too long before he began challenging at the business end.
O’Sullivan reached his first semi-final in 1996 – losing to Peter Ebdon – and followed it up a year later with his record-breaking 147 break in just five minutes and eight seconds.
Going all the way to the final took longer than expected, however.
Around that time, indeed, with UK and Masters titles already on his CV, many queried whether he was starting to underachieve at snooker’s most important setting.
Fellow Class of ’92 members John Higgins and Mark Williams already etched their names onto the trophy by the time O’Sullivan finally got his hands on it in 2001.
He was still aged just 25.
Fast forward another quarter of a century and not much has changed in terms of O’Sullivan – and Higgins and Williams too for that matter – still coming to the World Championship with the genuine prospect of winning the whole thing.
O’Sullivan added further world titles in 2004, 2008, 2012, 2013, and 2020, before joining ‘King of the Crucible’ Stephen Hendry with a magnificent seventh in 2022.
The 50 year-old has reached two quarter-finals and a semi-final since, but in truth he hasn’t properly threatened for that landmark eighth crown yet.
Whether that challenge will materialise in 2026 remains one of the hottest topics on the snooker circuit.
O’Sullivan enters this year’s edition in a mixed run of form having not played much throughout the entire 2025/26 season.
There have, of course, been signs of his enduring brilliance this term – not least his double maximum break effort in Saudi Arabia and an incredible 153 total clearance at the World Open.
In both of those events, O’Sullivan reached the final only to be denied a first ranking title since early in 2024 by outstanding displays from his opponents.
The former world number one will go down as one of the sport’s most prolific champions ever.
But whether his failure to return to the winners’ fold in time for Sheffield will have any lasting impact should he make it far in this event will be another interesting subplot.
O’Sullivan would be expected to overcome first-round opponent He with relative ease, but sterner challenges will come.
Familiar rival Higgins would represent an immediate bruising showdown in the second round if he were to safely get past his initial challenger from China.
The likes of Zhao Xintong, Judd Trump, and Mark Selby are probably considered as the more genuine favourites for global glory, meanwhile.
There are several other heavyweight contenders in the 2026 World Snooker Championship draw who could rightfully claim that 2026 is their year, too.
Yet none of them can quite create the buzz that O’Sullivan generates, and that sense of anticipation will manifest once more when Ronnie begins his latest bid to orchestrate yet another piece of snooker history.
Featured photo credit: WST
Fans love personalities, winners, and rivalries — those are very important to a mass media sport, which is what snooker is today — of course looking for the next attractive personality combined with snooker talent is why the WST promoted Stan Moody — I think this is also why Zhao Xintong was welcomed back — if you’ve ever heard him give an interview in English, he’s definitely an attractive personality, humble and sincere — so I think all is forgiven there.
O’Sullivan is both a personality and a winner — at the moment he’s (still) the biggest personality in snooker, even if he is not a reliable and frequent winner, as he once was — all of the other top players (Higgins, Williams, Selby, Robertson, Trump et al) have been his natural rivals.
Obviously the tour would not be the same without him — or them, to be honest.
I honestly believe the Chinese players have all been through some formal coaching as how to manage an interview. They sound very professional with respect for their opponents, no excuses, and grateful for the fans. I recognize it actually being carbon copy of many other sport professionals. I have come to realize that many British snooker players are actually being used as trashy entertainment by some of Britain’s gossipy newspapers. Just as one example, during Jimmy White’s most recent loss, they used the fact that White was fuming after missing a pot that he blamed on a paying fan. That was the headline in the paper. It is noticeable that Ronnie O Sullivan can win many tournaments if he chose to play more often plus the only show you can expect from him for now on is on the table because he too also seems to have received assistance to increase his name value rather than tarnish it. It would give me joy to see him win more Crucibles than Hendry and not be just tied.
Hi dave
Wat are the chances of all 16 seeds going thru 1st round?
Why are the wualifiers not doing well this year
Wats the record number if seeds thru in r1 in history
Only five results left, so a pretty strong chance. On current form, Si Jiahui would probably be the most vulnerable. Chris Wakelin only 5-4 up on Liam Pullen too, as things stand.
Not sure why the qualifiers have found it so difficult – just one of those things. 15/16 seeds made it through in both 1983 and 1993. There has never been a clean sweep.
>There has never been a clean sweep.
This may be the year — Wakelin won, and Selby is now up 7-1 vs Jak Jones — I like Vafaei, so will be pulling for him — I agree of the remaining qualifiers, he probably has the best chance to beat a seeded player.
Snooker is a funny game — Jak Jones, who has achieved some success at the Crucible, looked so impressive during qualifying, but now he’s being demolished by Mark Selby, who’s a great player of course, one of the favorites — still you expected more from Jones — this was I imagine one the most anticipated 1st round matches.
It’ll be interesting to see which version of Vafaei turns up.