There are three snooker players in the world who are in the favorite position when they face Ronnie O’Sullivan. Two of these three are still in the World Cup.
On the eve of May Day, snooker followers rubbed their palms together as they watched the four remaining in the World Cup.
The class of ’92, or trio, represented the new blood Ronnie O’Sullivan, John Higgins and Mark Williams had advanced to the top two years at the World Cup in the top four – Higgins as defending champion.
In 1999, the only strain in Kask was a Scotsman who played poorly for the season but found himself at the most important moment. Stephen Hendry. Hendry had lifted the World Cup six times in the 1990s, making him the most successful snooker player in the World Cup in the modern era with the same number of winners. Ray Reardon and Steve Davisin with.
Although Hendry was only 30 years old, he realized the young challengers were getting the upper hand. After the May Day of 1999, Hendry was given the iconic nickname The King of The Crucible when he secured his seventh World Championship by beating O’Sullivan in the semifinals and Williams in the final.
That tournament remained Hendry’s last major victory, but it sealed his position as an all-time player in many qualifying papers.
O’Sulliva’s two wins away
On the eve of May Day 2022, exactly 23 years later, Hendry has lost all but two of his significant records to O’Sullivan. Along with O’Sullivan, Hendry is still the only player to have made three 147-point shots in the World Cup.
In the most important number of world championships won, Hendry is still ahead of O’Sullivan in a score of 7-6. But will he be next Monday when the 2022 World Championship is announced?
For the first time since the 1999 May Day, O’Sullivan, Higgins and Williams are all still involved, with only four players left in the tournament.
The only change to the quartet 23 years ago is that the role of the thirties player is played instead of Hendry Judd Trump32. The World Cup has been played at the Crucible Theater since 1977, but it is only for the first time that every player appearing in the semi-finals has at least one World Championship on their CV.
However, in the midst of star glory, the biggest question is the same as at the start of the tournament: will O’Sulliva win his seventh championship? Many factors argue that the answer is yes. O’Sullivan is the number one player on the world rankings and is widely recognized – as is Hendry – as the best snooker player of all time.
No one knows as much about winning tournaments as O’Sullivan, who holds the top prizes in most not only ranking tournaments but also major tournaments. The World Cup winning record is the only missing piece.
In addition, O’Sullivan has reached the semifinals out of four, consuming the least energy in three rounds. In particular, this factor supports O’Sullivan’s position as a pre-favorite.
Higgins worst opponent
O’Sullivan is best known for his ability to play at his best while in the lead. If he gets up to speed, the majority of opponents won’t be able to hang up close.
Here, however, Higgins is an exception to Trump and Neil Robertson with. For several years now, these three players have been in the match against O’Sullivan – and also passed the test.
Higgins and O’Sullivan have played each other four times this season, and Higgins has won each of the encounters. The duo have faced five times in the World Cup, with Higgins winning 3–2. Higgins’ winnings from each other’s World Cup matches are in 1998, 2007 and 2011, the years when the Scotsman also celebrated the World Cup.
Unlike previous rounds of the World Cup, the semi-finals match will be played in four episodes, the Best of 33 session. Thus, 17 winning lots are required to win. In four-session matches, Higgins and O’Sullivan have won each other once. The longer the matches, the more faith the player has to find in beating O’Sullivan.
Since the 2005 Masters final, Higgins and O’Sullivan have faced eight times in a match of at least two sessions. While the most recent win is O’Sullivan’s handwriting, all seven other long matches have ended in Higgins ’name.
O’Sullivan’s stats against Trump are very similar: Trump has won six of the previous eight long matches.
Of the remaining four, O’Sullivan has been a troll only for Williams, whose previous win over O’Sullivan in a long match is in 2000. Since then, O’Sullivan has won all nine mutual encounters and slipped shorter thrillers over the deal.
If Jack Lisowski would have overthrew Higgins on Wednesday night, O’Sullivan’s position as the tournament’s number one favorite would be clear. When he reached the World Cup final, O’Sullivan has only been a loser once: in 2014 Mark Selby was better at 18–14. Now, getting to the finals requires O’Sullivan to overthrow Higgins, a mammoth. Higgins, who has played in as many as five value finals this season but lost each one.
Only by beating Higgins would O’Sullivan reach the threshold of a major record.
Not a weak session yet
O’Sullivan rose to the rockets in 1993 when he won the finals of the then-dominated Hendry UK Championship at just 17 years old. However, O’Sullivan only achieved his first World Championship title in 2001, the last of his Class of ’92 racing brothers.
Since 2001, O’Sullivan has been consistently compared to Hendry’s seven World Cup titles on the subject, as over the years the benchmarks have dwindled as O’Sullivan scrambled for Hendry’s own records. O’Sullivan couldn’t achieve his seventh championship in tougher company than he does now.
If O’Sullivan survives the pressure created by the club and the record as a winner, the achievement will elevate him to the undisputed snooker king despite sharing the World Cup title with Hendry. It must be remembered that Hendry was the player to win major tournaments for just ten years, while O’Sullivan has been at the brightest top of the sport for 30 years.
In view of the seventh World Cup title, one more statistical fact must be taken into account. In a statistically long World Cup tournament, each player hits at least one weak episode, mostly several. In his six championships, O’Sullivan has always lost or played at least two sessions, but in this year’s tournament, he has won every session so far.
Instead, both Higgins, Trump and Williams have faced a weak moment in the tournament that have emerged as winners.