Ronnie O'Sullivan started his professional snooker career in 1992 and is widely considered one of the greatest players in the history of the sport. His play and accomplishments are described by some peers and pundits as being the greatest in the modern era of snooker. O'Sullivan is a seven-time world champion, and holds many records, including the fastest maximum break in professional competition; the highest number of century breaks; the highest number of maximum breaks, and the most Triple Crown event titles (23).
Career Amateur career: early achievements O'Sullivan started playing snooker from just seven years old, and showed a considerable natural talent for the game: winning his first club tournament aged 9 and scoring his first century break (a run of 117) aged 10. O'Sullivan's first major success was becoming the 1989 British Under-16 Champion, aged 13, beating Andy Hicks 3–1 in the final. A year later, O'Sullivan made a "big breakthrough" at a professional-amateur tournament in Stevenage. He defeated world number 34 Marcel Gauvreau 3–2 in the quarter-finals, with a break of 120 in the deciding frame before progressing to the final and defeating fellow amateur Anthony Hamilton for the title. Afterwards, Gauvreau described O'Sullivan's play as "unbelievable" and that "No-one's ever played that well against me." Still aged 14, O'Sullivan made his television debut at the Thames Snooker Classic. He made a televised 75 break during his quarter-final match, which was commentated on by Steve Davis, before being defeated at the semi-final stage. Two years later, O'Sullivan reached the final of the 1991 English Amateur Championship, where he fell 10–13 to Steve Judd. During the tournament, at the age of 15 years and 98 days, he became the youngest player to compile a maximum break in a recognised tournament, a record that stood until July 2017 when it was broken by Sean Maddocks from Liverpool, who was 15 years and 90 days old when he achieved the feat. Later the same year, he defeated Patrick Delsemme 11–4 for the 1991 IBSF World Under-21 Snooker Championship title, captured the 1991 Junior Pot Black by beating Declan Murphy 2–0 in the final, and won Pontins Autumn Championship, whitewashing Matthew Stevens 5–0. O'Sullivan's last notable amateur achievement before turning professional was reaching the southern area final of the 1992 English Amateur Championship, where he lost to Stephen Lee.
1992/1993 season: qualifying success, first professional title, Crucible debut O'Sullivan won a record 38 consecutive matches after turning professional all in ranking events and surpassing the previous record of Stephen Hendry in his debut season, and he won 74 of his 76 qualifying matches. All qualifying matches were played in a block from June to September 1992 in the Norbreck Castle in Blackpool. The final stages for all the events came later in the season. He also set a record for the fastest victory, winning a best-of-9-frame match in 43 minutes to beat Tony Drago's previous record. After this performance, MC Alan Hughes first gave him the nickname "The Rocket". O'Sullivan also won his first title as a professional: the non-ranking Extra Challenge in Bangkok, triumphing over John Parrott, James Wattana and Alan McManus in the round-robin format. O'Sullivan qualified for the World Championship and made his debut at the Crucible Theatre on 18 April 1993, at the age of 17 years and 134 days and he is still the fourth-youngest player ever to compete at the venue, behind Luca Brecel, Yan Bingtao and Stephen Hendry. He lost 7–10 to Alan McManus in the first round. O'Sullivan was named the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association's (WPBSA) Young Player of the Year for 1993.
1993/1994 season: historic UK Championship and British Open titles, Masters debut In the 1993–94 season, O'Sullivan enjoyed more success by first qualifying for the Masters as a wild card by winning the 1993 Benson and Hedges Snooker Championship by defeating John Lardner 9–6 in the final. Then O'Sullivan captured his first professional ranking title and first part of the Triple Crown, the UK Championship by defeating Stephen Hendry 10–6 in the final. At the age of 17 years and 358 days he became the youngest ever winner of a ranking tournament. One month later, in the European Open final, he came across Stephen Hendry again but this time, he was defeated by 5–9. Making his debut at the Masters, he lost in the first round 1–5 to Dennis Taylor, who was the Masters champion in 1987, by defeating Alex Higgins 9–8 in the final. He won his second ranking title of the season at the British Open by defeating James Wattana 9–4 in the final. He reached the second round of the World Championship, but lost 3–13 against John Parrott. Having started the season ranked number 57 in the world, he ended it ranked number 9, and was named the WPBSA's Player of the Year for 1994.
1994/1995 season: Masters title, two ranking event finals O'Sullivan did not win any ranking titles during the 1994–95 season, but reached two finals. He lost to James Wattana in the final of the Thailand Open and to John Higgins in the final of the British Open. At the Masters, O'Sullivan captured his first title by defeating Higgins 9–3 in the final. With this victory, he became the youngest player ever to win the tournament at the age of 19 years and 69 days. and came a step closer to collecting all the Triple Crown events, only requiring a world title to complete his collection. At the World Championship, he recorded his furthest run yet by reaching the quarter-finals, where he lost 8–13 to Stephen Hendry.
1995/1996 season: Masters runner-up, controversy at the Crucible In the 1995–96 season, O'Sullivan again did not capture any ranking titles but was victorious at the non-ranking Charity Challenge defeating John Higgins 9–6 in the final. As defending champion, O'Sullivan reached the final of the Masters, but lost his title 5–10 to Stephen Hendry. For the first time, O'Sullivan reached the World Championship semi-finals, but lost 14–16 to Peter Ebdon. After his 10–3 first round victory over Alain Robidoux, Robidoux accused O'Sullivan of showing "disrespect" after he had played left-handed during the match. Robidoux refused to shake hands with O'Sullivan at the end of the match. O'Sullivan responded by saying that he was "better left-handed than [Robidoux] is right-handed." Later during the tournament, before his quarter-final match with John Higgins, O'Sullivan was involved in an incident with assistant press officer, Michael Ganley, in the press room. O'Sullivan admitted to assaulting Ganley during the incident. For this snooker's governing body, the WPBSA, gave O'Sullivan a two-year suspended ban and a £20,000 fine, and advised him to donate £10,000 to charity, but allowed him to continue competing at the event.
1996/1997 season: Masters runner-up, Asian Classic and German Open titles, fastest ever maximum break In the 1996–97 season, O'Sullivan won two ranking titles: the Asian Classic by narrowly defeating Brian Morgan 9–8 in the final, and the German Open by defeating Alain Robidoux 9–7 in the final. O'Sullivan again reached the final of the Charity Challenge, where he faced Stephen Hendry in a first-to-nine frame match. O'Sullivan trailed 2–8 before winning six frames in a row to level at 8–8, before Hendry won the deciding frame with a maximum break. At the Masters, O'Sullivan reached his third consecutive final, where he faced Steve Davis. After O'Sullivan took the first two frames with back-to-back century breaks of 116 and 113, the third frame was disrupted by a streaker, Lianne Croft. Davis later stated that the streaking incident affected O'Sullivan's concentration, allowing him back into the match and the afternoon session ended all-square at 4–4. O'Sullivan began the evening session by winning four frames in 49 minutes to take an 8–4 lead, but Davis fought back to win the next six frames and clinch the title with a 10–8 victory. On 21 April 1997, while playing Mick Price in the first round of the World Championship, O'Sullivan made the fastest ever competitive maximum break in just over five minutes—averaging under nine seconds per shot. This was also O'Sullivan's first maximum break in professional competition. He exited the World Championship in the second round, losing 12–13 against Darren Morgan. O'Sullivan also won the non-ranking European League, defeating Hendry 10–8 in the final.
1997/1998 season: UK Championship and Scottish Open titles O'Sullivan captured two more ranking titles in the 1997–98 season. By beating three-time defending champion Stephen Hendry 10–6 in the final, O'Sullivan won his second UK Championship title. O'Sullivan also triumphed at the Scottish Open by defeating John Higgins 9–5 in the final. For the third year in a row, O'Sullivan made the final of the Charity Challenge. He was defeated, like the year previous, in a final frame decider, 8–9 to John Higgins. For the first time in three years O'Sullivan did not reach the final at the Masters, losing to Steve Davis. After defeating Ken Doherty 9–3 in the final of the Irish Masters, a post-match drug test found traces of cannabis in his system. O'Sullivan was stripped of the title, forfeited the prize money and the title was awarded to Doherty by the WPBSA. O'Sullivan reached the World Championship semi-finals for the second time in his career, but lost 9–17 to eventual champion John Higgins.
1998/1999 season: no major or ranking success O'Sullivan began the 1998–99 season by winning the non-ranking Scottish Masters, but went on to win no more titles during the season. At the UK Championship, O'Sullivan was defending champion, but withdrew from the tournament shortly before his scheduled first-round match. His manager stated that he was "suffering from physical and nervous exhaustion" and that his doctor had ordered "a complete rest from snooker". Later reports stated instead that he was suffering from depression at the time. In the quarter-finals of the Welsh Open, O'Sullivan made the second maximum of his professional career, playing against James Wattana. O'Sullivan reached the quarter-finals of the Masters, but lost 2–6 to Ken Doherty. In his fourth consecutive final in the Charity Challenge, and in a repeat outcome of last year's final: O'Sullivan lost to John Higgins again, this time 4–9. At the World Championship, O'Sullivan reached his third semi-final in four years. But, he was again denied a place in the final when he lost 13–17 to Stephen Hendry in a match that featured century breaks in four consecutive frames (two by O'Sullivan of 134 and 110, scoring 134 after missing the pink for the maximum break).
1999/2000 season: China and Scottish Open titles At the beginning of the 1999–2000 season, O'Sullivan reached the final of the one-off non-ranking Millennium Cup. However, he lost 2–7 to Stephen Lee. Throughout the rest of the season, O'Sullivan won two ranking tournaments: the China Open, where he defeated Lee 9–2 in the final, and the Scottish Open, where he defeated Mark Williams 9–1 in the final. At the Grand Prix and Scottish Open, O'Sullivan hit his third and fourth competitive maximum breaks of his career. Competing for England, O'Sullivan was part of the winning Nations Cup team. Partnering John Parrott, Jimmy White and Stephen Lee: they defeated defending champions Wales 6–4 in the final. In the Triple Crown events, O'Sullivan did not experience any winning success: losing at the quarter-final stages of both the UK Championship and Masters, 3–9 to Matthew Stevens and 3–6 to John Parrott respectively, and losing in the first round of the World Championship, 9–10 to David Gray despite becoming the first player to compile five century breaks in a first round match at the Crucible.
2000/2001 season: World Championship title and China Open defence