2019–20 Ronnie O'Sullivan snooker season
The 2019/2020 Ronnie O'Sullivan snooker season began with the Shanghai Masters in September 2019. His opening match was against Zhang Yi on 10 September. This season saw O'Sullivan win two tournaments, Shanghai Masters, which he won for a third time in a row and his sixth world title, bringing him on level terms with Steve Davis and Ray Reardon and only one behind Stephen Hendry. World Championship itself was affected because of the ongoing situation with the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in the eventual postponement of tournament from spring to summer.
Full name | Ronnie O'Sullivan |
---|---|
Country | ![]() |
Season ranking history | |
Ranking points total | 597,500 |
Beginning ranking | No. 1 |
End ranking | No. 2 |
Ranking change | ![]() |
Season achievements | |
Record | 40–10 (80%) |
Century breaks | 52 |
Highest break | 142 (Welsh Open) |
Ranking titles | 1 |
Non-ranking titles | 1 |
Season earnings | £833,500 |
Triple Crown record | |
UK Championship | 4R |
Masters | N/A |
World Snooker Championship | W |
2020/2021 → |
Season summary
Shanghai Masters
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.
English Open
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.
World Open
O'Sullivan was beat in qualifying round that was held over to Dominic Dale.
Champion of Champions
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.
Northern Ireland Open
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.
UK Championship
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.
Scottish Open
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.
World Grand Prix
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.
Welsh Open
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.
Snooker Shoot Out
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.
Championship League
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.
World Championship
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.
All WPBSA sanctioned matches
The following tables document all matches that took place as part of WPBSA sanctioned tournaments that Ronnie O'Sullivan entered in the 2019/2020 snooker season.
World Snooker Tour
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. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Regal International East Asia Hotel, Shanghai, China, 9–15 September 2019. |
2R | 10 September | ![]() |
6–0 | 136, 132 | 2 | 1–0 | 1–0 | [1] |
QF | 12 September | ![]() |
6–5 | 124, 107 | 4 | 2–0 | 2–0 | [2] | |
SF | 14 September | ![]() |
10–6 | 134, 102 | 6 | 3–0 | 3–0 | [3] | |
W | 15 September | ![]() |
11–9 | 124, 130 | 8 | 4–0 | 4–0 | [4] | |
K2 Leisure Centre, Crawley, England, 14–20 October 2019. |
1R | 14 October | ![]() |
4–3 | 102 | 1 | 1–0 | 5–0 | |
2R | 16 October | ![]() |
4–3 | 1 | 2–0 | 6–0 | |||
3R | 17 October | ![]() |
4–1 | 1 | 3–0 | 7–0 | |||
4R | 17 October | ![]() |
3–4 | 134 | 2 | 3–1 | 7–1 | ||
Yushan Number One Middle School, Yushan, China, 28 October – 3 November 2019. |
Q1 | 28 October | ![]() |
3–5 | 0 | 0–1 | 7–2 | ||
Ricoh Arena, Coventry, England, 4–10 November 2019. |
1R | 7 November | ![]() |
4–3 | 0 | 1–0 | 8–2 | ||
QF | 7 November | ![]() |
6–3 | 104 | 1 | 2–0 | 9–2 | ||
SF | 8 November | ![]() |
5–6 | 1 | 2–1 | 9–3 | |||
Waterfront Hall, Belfast, Northern Ireland, 11–17 November 2019. |
1R | 12 November | ![]() |
4–2 | 0 | 1–0 | 10–3 | ||
2R | 13 November | ![]() |
4–2 | 101 | 1 | 2–0 | 11–3 | ||
3R | 14 November | ![]() |
4–1 | 1 | 3–0 | 12–3 | |||
4R | 14 November | ![]() |
4–1 | 127 | 2 | 4–0 | 13–3 | ||
QF | 15 November | ![]() |
5–1 | 2 | 5–0 | 14–3 | |||
SF | 16 November | ![]() |
6–1 | 2 | 6–0 | 15–3 | |||
F | 17 November | ![]() |
7–9 | 126, 135 | 4 | 6–1 | 15–4 | ||
Barbican Centre, York, England, 26 November – 8 December 2019. |
1R | 28 November | ![]() |
6–0 | 133 | 1 | 1–0 | 16–4 | |
2R | 30 November | ![]() |
6–0 | 106 | 2 | 2–0 | 17–4 | ||
3R | 3 December | ![]() |
6–2 | 2 | 3–0 | 18–4 | |||
4R | 5 December | ![]() |
4–6 | 107, 124 | 4 | 3–1 | 18–5 | ||
Emirates Arena, Glasgow, Scotland, 9–15 December 2019. |
1R | 10 December | ![]() |
4–3 | 0 | 1–0 | 19–5 | ||
2R | 11 December | ![]() |
4–0 | 111 | 1 | 2–0 | 20–5 | ||
3R | 12 December | ![]() |
4–0 | 110, 109 | 3 | 3–0 | 21–5 | ||
4R | 12 December | ![]() |
4–2 | 106 | 4 | 4–0 | 22–5 | ||
QF | 13 December | ![]() |
4–5 | 123, 113, 111 | 7 | 4–1 | 22–6 | ||
The Centaur, Cheltenham Racecourse, Cheltenham, England, 3–9 February 2020. |
1R | 3 February | ![]() |
4–3 | 129 | 1 | 1–0 | 23–6 | |
2R | 5 February | ![]() |
4–3 | 132, 120, 100 | 4 | 2–0 | 24–6 | ||
QF | 6 February | ![]() |
3–5 | 102 | 5 | 2–1 | 24–7 | ||
Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff, Wales, 10–16 February 2020. |
1R | 11 February | ![]() |
4–1 | 0 | 1–0 | 25–7 | ||
2R | 12 February | ![]() |
4–2 | 0 | 2–0 | 26–7 | |||
3R | 13 February | ![]() |
4–2 | 118 | 1 | 3–0 | 27–7 | ||
4R | 13 February | ![]() |
4–0 | 131 | 2 | 4–0 | 28–7 | ||
QF | 14 February | ![]() |
5–1 | 142 | 3 | 5–0 | 29–7 | ||
SF | 15 February | ![]() |
5–6 | 100, 125 | 5 | 5–1 | 29–8 | ||
Watford Colosseum, Watford, England, 20–23 February 2020. |
1R | 21 February | ![]() |
1–0 | 0 | 1–0 | 30–8 | ||
2R | 22 February | ![]() |
0–1 | 0 | 1–1 | 30–9 | |||
Marshall Arena, Milton Keynes, England, 1–11 June 2020. |
RR1 | 5 June | ![]() |
3–0 | 112 | 1 | 1–0 | 31–9 | |
5 June | ![]() |
3–0 | 116 | 2 | 2–0 | 32–9 | |||
5 June | ![]() |
3–0 | 2 | 3–0 | 33–9 | ||||
RR2 | 9 June | ![]() |
3–0 | 101, 104 | 4 | 4–0 | 34–9 | ||
9 June | ![]() |
3–1 | 4 | 5–0 | 35–9 | ||||
9 June | ![]() |
0–3 | 4 | 5–1 | 35–10 | ||||
Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, England, 31 July – 16 August 2020. |
1R | 2–3 August | ![]() |
10–1 | 101, 115 | 2 | 1–0 | 36–10 | |
2R | 7–9 August | ![]() |
13–10 | 101, 117 | 4 | 2–0 | 37–10 | ||
QF | 10–11 August | ![]() |
13–10 | 101, 105, 112, 104, 133 | 9 | 3–0 | 38–10 | ||
SF | 12–14 August | ![]() |
17–16 | 114, 138 | 11 | 4–0 | 39–10 | ||
W | 15–16 August | ![]() |
18–8 | 106 | 12 | 5–0 | 40–10 | ||
Table legends
Round legend | |
---|---|
Q# | Qualifying round |
#R | Early round (WR = Wildcard round, RR = Round robin) |
QF | Quarter-final |
SF | Semi-final |
F | Lost in final |
W | Won in final |
Tournament type legend | |
---|---|
World ranking event | |
Non-ranking event |
World Snooker Tour season records
The following records do not contain any non-tour matches.
Head-to-head matchups
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:
Yuan Sijun 2–0
Shaun Murphy 2–0
Joe Perry 2–0
Stuart Carrington 2–0
Mark Selby 2–1
Kyren Wilson 2–1
Zhang Yi 1–0
Jamie O'Neill 1–0
Hossein Vafaei 1–0
Jimmy White 1–0
John Higgins 1–0
Oliver Lines 1–0
Lei Peifan 1–0
Ross Bulman 1–0
Tian Pengfei 1–0
Noppon Saengkham 1–0
James Cahill 1–0
Martin Gould 1–0
David Gilbert 1–0
Liang Wenbo 1–0
Zhang Jiankang 1–0
Anthony Hamilton 1–0
Soheil Vahedi 1–0
Alan McManus 1–0
Kishan Hirani 1–0
Michael Georgiou 1–0
Chris Wakelin 1–0
Harvey Chandler 1–0
Sam Craigie 1–0
Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 1–0
Mark Williams 1–0
Neil Robertson 1–1
Dominic Dale 1–1
Ding Junhui 1–1
Mei Xiwen 0–1
Judd Trump 0–1
Graeme Dott 0–1
Billy Joe Castle 0–1
Stuart Bingham 0–1
Finals (2 titles, 1 runner-up)
O'Sullivan has reached three finals and won two titles in the 2019/2020 season:
Ranking finals (1 title, 1 runner-up)
Outcome | No. | Tournament | Opponent in the final | Score |
---|---|---|---|---|
Runner-up | 1. | Northern Ireland Open | ![]() |
7–9 |
Winner | 1. | World Championship | ![]() |
18–8 |
Non-ranking finals (1 title)
Outcome | No. | Tournament | Opponent in the final | Score |
---|---|---|---|---|
Winner | 1. | Shanghai Masters | ![]() |
11–9 |
Ranking points
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 £):
Tournament | Result | Ranking points awarded | Running season ranking points total |
---|---|---|---|
English Open | 4R | 7,500 | 7,500 |
World Open | Q1 | 0 | 7,500 |
Northern Ireland Open | F | 30,000 | 37,500 |
UK Championship | 4R | 17,000 | 54,500 |
Scottish Open | QF | 10,000 | 64,500 |
World Grand Prix | QF | 12,500 | 77,000 |
Welsh Open | SF | 20,000 | 97,000 |
Shoot Out | 2R | 500 | 97,500 |
World Championship | W | 500,000 | 597,500 |
Result legend | |
---|---|
L# | Last #, qualifying round |
L# | Last #, early round |
RR | Round robin |
WR | Wildcard round |
QF | Quarter-final |
SF | Semi-final |
F | Lost in final |
W | Won in final |
Non-ranking results
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:
Tournament | Result | Prize money (£) | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
Shanghai Masters | W | 200,000 | [7] |
Champion of Champions | SF | 30,000 | |
Championship League | RR2 | 6,000 | |
Total | 236,000 |
Result legend | |
---|---|
L# | Last # |
RR | Round robin |
WR | Wildcard round |
QF | Quarter-final |
SF | Semi-final |
F | Lost in final |
W | Won in final |
High break prizes
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:
Tournament | High break | Prize money (£) | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
Season
During the 2019/2020 season, O'Sullivan made the following total number of century breaks:
Tournament | Tournament total | Running season total |
---|---|---|
Shanghai Masters | 8 | 8 |
English Open | 2 | 10 |
World Open | 0 | 10 |
Champion of Champions | 1 | 11 |
Northern Ireland Open | 4 | 15 |
UK Championship | 4 | 19 |
Scottish Open | 7 | 26 |
World Grand Prix | 5 | 31 |
Welsh Open | 5 | 36 |
Snooker Shoot Out | 0 | 36 |
Championship League | 4 | 40 |
World Championship | 12 | 52 |
Notes
- All main tour matches appear on World Snooker's official calendar.[5]
- Official seeding revisions were used for tournaments they were prescribed for on World Snooker's official calendar.[5] Otherwise the most recent seeding revision was used for any other tournament.
- Breaks in bold indicate highest break made in the tournament and thus O'Sullivan received the high break prize. Breaks in italic are maximum breaks.
References
- "Rocket Lifts Off In Shanghai". World Snooker. 10 September 2019. Retrieved 10 September 2019.
- "Rocket Downs Warrior In Thriller". World Snooker. 12 September 2019. Retrieved 15 September 2019.
- "Rocket Into Third Straight Shanghai Final". World Snooker. 14 September 2019. Retrieved 15 September 2019.
- "Rocket Lands Third Straight Shanghai Title". World Snooker. 15 September 2019. Retrieved 15 September 2019.
- "Calendar 2019/2020" (PDF). World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Retrieved 10 September 2019.
- "Indicative prize money rankings schedule 2019/2020 season" (PDF). World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 July 2018. Retrieved 10 September 2019.
- "Indicative Prize Money Rankings Schedule 2018/2019 Season" (PDF). www.worldsnooker.com/2018-19-prize-money. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 July 2018. Retrieved 12 November 2018.