2019–20 Ronnie O'Sullivan snooker season

O'Sullivan's first tournament of the season was the Shanghai Masters. As the defending champion, he defeated Zhang Yi 6−0 in the last 16.[1] Then in the quarter-finals O'Sullivan survived a scare when he came back from 1–5 to beat Kyren Wilson 6–5.[2] He beat Neil Robertson 10–6[3] in the semi-finals and then defeated Shaun Murphy 11–9[4] in the final to win his first event of the season and successfully defended his title. With that win, O'Sullivan became Shanghai Masters champion for the third time in a row.

In English Open O'Sullivan beat Jamie O'Neill, Yuan Sijun and Hossein Vafaei before he was surprisingly beaten in the last 16 by Mei Xiwen.

O'Sullivan was beat in qualifying round that was held over to Dominic Dale.

As a defending champion, O'Sullivan beat in the first round his good friend Jimmy White 4–3, then John Higgins 6–3 in the quarterfinals before losing to the eventual winner Neil Robertson 5–6.

On his way to the final O'Sullivan beat Oliver Lines, Lei Peifan, Stuart Carrington, Yuan Sijun, Shaun Murphy and Joe Perry. In the final he met world number one and reigning World champion Judd Trump in a repeat of last year's final. He lost 7–9, the same scoreline as the previous year.

O'Sullivan started his defence of UK Championship with two whitewashes over Ross Bulman and Tian Pengfei. He then beat Noppon Saengkham 6–2 before succumbing to eventual winner Ding Junhui 4–6.

At the Scottish Open O'Sullivan beat Dominic Dale, James Cahill, Martin Gould and Joe Perry before he once again lost to eventual champion, in this case Mark Selby 4–5, making three centuries in the process.

Ronnie entered this tournament needing a deep run to qualify for the Players Championship and Tour Championship. In both these tournaments he was a defending champion, with the Players Championship for two years in a row. In the first two rounds, he beat David Gilbert and Liang Wenbo 4–3 but then lost to Graeme Dott 3–5 in the quarterfinals.

O'Sullivan beat Zhang Jiankang, Stuart Carrington, Anthony Hamilton, Soheil Vahedi and Mark Selby before being beaten by Kyren Wilson 5–6 in the semifinals.

Ronnie entered Shoot Out for the first time since 2015 mainly because he needed ranking points to qualify for the Players Championship and then for the Tour Championship. But it didn't work out as after beating Alan McManus he lost to Billy Joe Castle which ended his hopes to qualify. This was also O'Sullivan last tournament for four months.

This was the first tournament organized since the start of COVID-19 pandemic. Ronnie won his group by beating Kishan Hirani, Michael Georgiou and Chris Wakelin, all by 3–0 scoreline. In the second phase of the tournament he beat Harvey Chandler 3–0, Sam Craigie 3–1 and then he lost to Stuart Bingham 0–3 which eliminated him from the tournament. In honour of Willie Thorne who passed away recently, Ronnie sported a large moustache.

O'Sullivan entered his record-breaking 28th consecutive World Championship. In the first round, he beat Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 10–1 in the fastest match in Crucible history which lasted only 108 minutes. In the second round he beat Ding Junhui 13–10, thus avenging his defeat to him three years ago at the quarterfinals by the same scoreline. He then beat Mark Williams 13–10 in the quarterfinals having come back from 2–7 and 4–8 down and making five centuries in the match. He caused much debate however when asked in the postmatch interview about his longevity with him still making deep runs in tournaments despite his age, he replid it's not surprising with the poor standard of the lower-ranked players that they wouldn't even make good amateurs, even saying he'd need to lose an arm and leg to drop off the tour.

With this win, O'Sullivan reached his first semifinal and one table setup since 2014 where he faced Mark Selby. O'Sullivan beat him 17–16 having trailed 9–13 and 14–16. With this win, he avenged his defeat to Selby from the 2014 final. Postmatch his defeated opponent branded him as being disrespectful with the way he played, though it was taken without much offence from O'Sullivan who characteristic of him gave an unorthodox interview, repeatedly citing his lack of cue action hindering him in long matches.

O'Sullivan reached his first final since 2014 where he faced Kyren Wilson. This was his only match of the tournament with an audience, albeit reduced due to social distancing rules. O'Sullivan managed to beat him 18–8 thus winning his sixth world title which brings him on level with Steve Davis and Ray Reardon and only one behind Stephen Hendry's record of seven.

The following table chronicles all the main tour matches[nb 1] of O'Sullivan.

Tournament	Round	Date (day month)	Opponent (Seed)[nb 2]	Score	Centuries made[nb 3]	Tournament century total	Tournament record	Overall season record	Ref.
Shanghai Masters Regal International East Asia Hotel, Shanghai, China, 9–15 September 2019.	2R	10 September	Zhang Yi	6–0	136, 132	2	1–0	1–0	[1]
	QF	12 September	Kyren Wilson (8)	6–5	124, 107	4	2–0	2–0	[2]
	SF	14 September	Neil Robertson (4)	10–6	134, 102	6	3–0	3–0	[3]
	W	15 September	Shaun Murphy (14)	11–9	124, 130	8	4–0	4–0	[4]
English Open K2 Leisure Centre, Crawley, England, 14–20 October 2019.	1R	14 October	Jamie O'Neill	4–3	102	1	1–0	5–0
	2R	16 October	Yuan Sijun	4–3		1	2–0	6–0
	3R	17 October	Hossein Vafaei (30)	4–1		1	3–0	7–0
	4R	17 October	Mei Xiwen	3–4	134	2	3–1	7–1
World Open Yushan Number One Middle School, Yushan, China, 28 October – 3 November 2019.	Q1	28 October	Dominic Dale	3–5		0	0–1	7–2
Champion of Champions Ricoh Arena, Coventry, England, 4–10 November 2019.	1R	7 November	Jimmy White	4–3		0	1–0	8–2
	QF	7 November	John Higgins (5)	6–3	104	1	2–0	9–2
	SF	8 November	Neil Robertson (4)	5–6		1	2–1	9–3
Northern Ireland Open Waterfront Hall, Belfast, Northern Ireland, 11–17 November 2019.	1R	12 November	Oliver Lines	4–2		0	1–0	10–3
	2R	13 November	Lei Peifan	4–2	101	1	2–0	11–3
	3R	14 November	Stuart Carrington	4–1		1	3–0	12–3
	4R	14 November	Yuan Sijun	4–1	127	2	4–0	13–3
	QF	15 November	Shaun Murphy (8)	5–1		2	5–0	14–3
	SF	16 November	Joe Perry (15)	6–1		2	6–0	15–3
	F	17 November	Judd Trump (1)	7–9	126, 135	4	6–1	15–4
UK Championship Barbican Centre, York, England, 26 November – 8 December 2019.	1R	28 November	Ross Bulman	6–0	133	1	1–0	16–4
	2R	30 November	Tian Pengfei (65)	6–0	106	2	2–0	17–4
	3R	3 December	Noppon Saengkham (32)	6–2		2	3–0	18–4
	4R	5 December	Ding Junhui (16)	4–6	107, 124	4	3–1	18–5
Scottish Open Emirates Arena, Glasgow, Scotland, 9–15 December 2019.	1R	10 December	Dominic Dale	4–3		0	1–0	19–5
	2R	11 December	James Cahill	4–0	111	1	2–0	20–5
	3R	12 December	Martin Gould	4–0	110, 109	3	3–0	21–5
	4R	12 December	Joe Perry (16)	4–2	106	4	4–0	22–5
	QF	13 December	Mark Selby (6)	4–5	123, 113, 111	7	4–1	22–6
World Grand Prix The Centaur, Cheltenham Racecourse, Cheltenham, England, 3–9 February 2020.	1R	3 February	David Gilbert (12)	4–3	129	1	1–0	23–6
	2R	5 February	Liang Wenbo (27)	4–3	132, 120, 100	4	2–0	24–6
	QF	6 February	Graeme Dott (14)	3–5	102	5	2–1	24–7
Welsh Open Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff, Wales, 10–16 February 2020.	1R	11 February	Zhang Jiankang	4–1		0	1–0	25–7
	2R	12 February	Stuart Carrington	4–2		0	2–0	26–7
	3R	13 February	Anthony Hamilton	4–2	118	1	3–0	27–7
	4R	13 February	Soheil Vahedi	4–0	131	2	4–0	28–7
	QF	14 February	Mark Selby (5)	5–1	142	3	5–0	29–7
	SF	15 February	Kyren Wilson (8)	5–6	100, 125	5	5–1	29–8
Snooker Shoot Out Watford Colosseum, Watford, England, 20–23 February 2020.	1R	21 February	Alan McManus	1–0		0	1–0	30–8
	2R	22 February	Billy Joe Castle	0–1		0	1–1	30–9
Championship League Marshall Arena, Milton Keynes, England, 1–11 June 2020.	RR1	5 June	Kishan Hirani	3–0	112	1	1–0	31–9
		5 June	Michael Georgiou	3–0	116	2	2–0	32–9
		5 June	Chris Wakelin	3–0		2	3–0	33–9
	RR2	9 June	Harvey Chandler	3–0	101, 104	4	4–0	34–9
		9 June	Sam Craigie	3–1		4	5–0	35–9
		9 June	Stuart Bingham	0–3		4	5–1	35–10
World Championship Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, England, 31 July – 16 August 2020.	1R	2–3 August	Thepchaiya Un-Nooh	10–1	101, 115	2	1–0	36–10
	2R	7–9 August	Ding Junhui (11)	13–10	101, 117	4	2–0	37–10
	QF	10–11 August	Mark Williams (3)	13–10	101, 105, 112, 104, 133	9	3–0	38–10
	SF	12–14 August	Mark Selby (7)	17–16	114, 138	11	4–0	39–10
	W	15–16 August	Kyren Wilson (8)	18–8	106	12	5–0	40–10

O'Sullivan's 2019/2020 season overall record is 40–10 (80%). His record against players seeded with a rank within the top 16 at the time of their meetings is 13–6 (68.42%).

Bold indicates player was ranked top 16 at time of at least one meeting. Record shown in round brackets indicates their meetings when player was ranked within the top 16 if different from the overall season record. Italic indicates player was ranked world no. 1 at time of at least one meeting. Record shown in square brackets indicates their meetings when player was ranked no. 1 if different from the overall season record. The following list is ordered by number of wins, then reverse ordered by number of defeats and then chronologically ordered:

O'Sullivan has reached three finals and won two titles in the 2019/2020 season:

The following table documents the results of all world ranking tournaments O'Sullivan competed in during the 2019/2020 season and the ranking points he was awarded for each result. Ranking points were distributed according to the prize money schedule.[6] This also represents his total prize money from world ranking results (in £):

The following table documents the results of all non-world ranking tournaments O'Sullivan competed in during the 2019/2020 season and the prize money he was awarded for each result:

The following table documents all high break and maximum prizes (indicated in bold) O'Sullivan received during the 2019/2020 season and the prize money he was awarded for each:

During the 2019/2020 season, O'Sullivan made the following total number of century breaks: