Maximum and century breaks made by Ronnie O'Sullivan
Ronnie O'Sullivan holds both the record for the highest amount of competitive century and maximum breaks, as well as the fastest maximum break of all time, in the game of snooker.
Maximum breaks
Ronnie O'Sullivan has made fifteen official maximum breaks in professional competition.[1] This is the highest number of maximums completed by any player in the history of the game. This total only includes maximum breaks that have been ratified by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA); it does not include maximums compiled in exhibition matches, or in events that are not sanctioned by the world governing body.
In addition to the fifteen maximum breaks officially recognised by the WPBSA, other high-profile maximums include a 147 compiled at the 2007 Irish Masters against Joe Swail in the quarter-final.[2] The maximum break prize of a Citroën Coupe, worth €20,000, was withdrawn by the organisers after they were unable to obtain insurance against a 147 being made. However, the withdrawal of the prize was concealed from the players and O'Sullivan only learned of this fact after making the maximum.[3]
O'Sullivan also deliberately refused at least one almost guaranteed 147 during the 2016 Welsh Open.[4] He made this decision in protest against what he believed to be the insufficient prize money awarded for the maximum, which in that tournament stood at £10,000 for the 147 in addition to the £2,000 highest break prize.[5] A similar incident occurred six years earlier in a match at the 2010 World Open (listed as number 10 in the table below). In this case, however, he was eventually convinced to pot the final black by the referee Jan Verhaas.[6] O'Sullivan has been criticised for such behaviour, which has been labelled unsportsmanlike and disrespectful to snooker fans, as well as to the socio-economically disadvantaged, who might benefit from a charitable donation of the ostensibly insufficient prize money.[7] However, he has defended his behaviour whilst also conceding that in hindsight he would rather have given the money to charity. In an interview, he asserted his right to enhance his own enjoyment of the game, as well as the spectacle for his fans, by engaging in such characterful, mischievous, and showmanlike behaviour.[8]
Completed in 5 minutes and 8 seconds, O'Sullivan's first 147 break, against Mick Price in their second round tie at the 1997 world championship, set a still-standing world record for the fastest maximum in the history of the game. Initially Guinness World Records recorded the time of the break at 5 minutes and 20 seconds.[9] However, an investigation undertaken by Deadspin in 2017 revealed that the time recorded by Guinness World Records was incorrect, as a result of the timer being started too early on the BBC footage.[10] Breaks are not officially timed in snooker and the official rules of snooker do not specify how they should be timed, instead leaving the timing to the discretion of the broadcaster.[11] World Snooker has since suggested that a break starts when the player strikes the cueball for the first time in the break; this would result in a time of 5 minutes and 8 seconds,[11] which is the time now officially recognised by both World Snooker and Guinness World Records.[12] However, this methodology for timing breaks is inconsistent with the one employed in shot clock events where timing for a player's shot begins when the balls have come to rest from his opponent's previous shot, and under this convention the break would have been timed at 5 minutes and 15 seconds.[11]
Additionally, O'Sullivan holds the record for the highest number of 147 breaks completed in the final frame of a match, having done so on six occasions. Of these six, one was in the deciding frame of his semi-final victory over Mark Selby at the 2007 UK Championship.
List of maximum breaks
A full list of O'Sullivan's competitive maximum breaks is given below:
Q | Qualifying round of the tournament |
F | Final frame of the match |
D | Deciding frame of the match (also implicitly the final frame of the match) |
L | Match ended in a loss for O'Sullivan |
No. | Year | Tournament | Opponent | Round | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | 1997 | World Championship | ![]() |
Last 32 | [13][14] |
2. | 1999 | Welsh Open | ![]() |
Quarter-final | [1][15] |
3. | 1999 | Grand Prix | ![]() |
Last 32 | [1][16] |
4. | 2000 | Scottish Open | ![]() |
Last 32 | [1][17] |
5. | 2001 | LG Cup | ![]() |
Last 16 | [1][18] |
6. | 2003 | World Championship | ![]() |
Last 32L | [1][19] |
7. | 2007 | Northern Ireland Trophy | ![]() |
Last 16 | [1][20] |
8. | 2007 | UK Championship | ![]() |
Semi-finalD | [1][21] |
9. | 2008 | World Championship | ![]() |
Last 16F | [1][22] |
10. | 2010 | World Open | ![]() |
Last 64Q,F | [1][23] |
11. | 2011 | Paul Hunter Classic | ![]() |
Last 32 | [1][24] |
12. | 2014 | Welsh Open | ![]() |
FinalF | [25][26] |
13. | 2014 | UK Championship | ![]() |
Last 16F | [27][28] |
14. | 2018 | China Open | ![]() |
Last 64L | [1][29] |
15. | 2018 | English Open | ![]() |
Last 64F | [30][31] |
Century breaks
O'Sullivan had made 479 century breaks at the start of the 2007–08 snooker season.[32] He made 1 century in the 2007 Euro-Asia Masters Challenge, 7 in the 2007 Grand Prix, 6 in the 2007 Premier League Snooker before the 2007 Northern Ireland Trophy and 6 more in the Northern Ireland Trophy, bringing his total to 499. His 500th century came in second frame of his Premier League match against Neil Robertson on 15 November 2007.[33]
At the start of the 2010–11 snooker season O'Sullivan had made 597 centuries.[34] He made 1 century in the Players Tour Championship 2010/2011 – Event 1 and 4 during the Players Tour Championship 2010/2011 – Event 4 which was played from 14 to 16 August 2010, making his 600th century during the tournament. He had made 695 century breaks at the start of the 2013–14 snooker season. He made 4 centuries in the European Tour 2013/2014 – Event 1 to take his total to 699. His first round match in the European Tour 2013/2014 – Event 3 was against Lyu Haotian on 16 August 2013. Lyu led 3–1 but O'Sullivan came back to win 4–3, making his 700th century in the deciding frame.[35] O'Sullivan made his 750th century on 22 August 2014 in the 2014 Paul Hunter Classic against Robbie Williams.[36]
At the start of 2015 O'Sullivan had made 773 centuries. On 13 January, in the first round of the 2015 Masters, he made two centuries to equal Stephen Hendry's record of 775.[37] Two days later, in his second round match, he broke Hendry's record, making his 776th century.[38] O'Sullivan made his 800th century on 5 January 2016 in a Championship League group match against Barry Hawkins.[39] His 900th century came on 10 November 2017 in the semi-final of the Champion of Champions, against Anthony Hamilton.[40] His 1,000th century came on 10 March 2019 in the final of the Players Championship against Neil Robertson.[41]
Since the start of the 2007/2008 season, O'Sullivan has made the following centuries:[lower-alpha 1]
- As of 15 January 2021
- Note
- This list excludes 2 centuries made in the 2011 Snooker Shoot-Out.
- As of 5 December 2020, this century is not included in cuetracker.net.
- O'Sullivan made 3 of these centuries during qualifying for the 2015 German Masters, in late 2014.
References
- "Official 147s". World Snooker. Retrieved 27 July 2018.
- "O'Sullivan notches 147 in Ireland". BBC Sport. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
- Whebell, Charles (12 March 2007). "O'Sullivan driven to victory". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 4 March 2014.
- stvmcal (15 February 2016). ""Because only I can" - Ronnie O'Sullivan's cocky 146 [BBC]" – via YouTube.
- stvmcal (3 September 2016). "Ronnie O'Sullivan Interview on why he made a 146 instead of a 147 - 2016 Welsh Open" – via YouTube.
- stvmcal (22 September 2010). "Ronnie O'Sullivan Bizarre 147 Break At World Open 2010 Against Mark King- (HQ)" – via YouTube.
- stvmcal (3 September 2016). "Ronnie O'Sullivan Interview on why he made a 146 instead of a 147 - 2016 Welsh Open" – via YouTube.
- stvmcal (3 September 2016). "Ronnie O'Sullivan Interview on why he made a 146 instead of a 147 - 2016 Welsh Open" – via YouTube.
- "Fastest 147 break in snooker". Guinness World Records. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
- "Ronnie O'Sullivan's fastest maximum in history was faster than official time". Eurosport. 28 April 2017. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
- Tippett, Ben (27 April 2017). "The Greatest Break In Snooker History Was Even Better Than Anyone Realized". Deadspin. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
- "Ronnie O'Sullivan". World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. 11 January 2015. Retrieved 9 September 2017.
- "Archive: Rocket's fastest 147". bbc.com. BBC. 21 April 2014. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
- "World Championship 1997". www.snooker.org. Retrieved 2019-03-20.
- "Welsh Open 1999". www.snooker.org. Retrieved 2019-03-20.
- "Grand Prix 1999". www.snooker.org. Retrieved 2019-03-20.
- "Regal Scottish Open 2000". www.snooker.org. Retrieved 2019-03-20.
- "LG Cup 2001". www.snooker.org. Retrieved 2019-03-20.
- "Embassy World Championship 2003". www.snooker.org. Retrieved 2019-03-20.
- "Northern Ireland Trophy 2007". www.snooker.org. Retrieved 2019-03-20.
- "Maplin UK Championship 2007". www.snooker.org. Retrieved 2019-03-20.
- "888.Com World Championship 2008". www.snooker.org. Retrieved 2019-03-20.
- "12BET.com World Open (2010)". www.snooker.org. Retrieved 2019-03-20.
- "Players Tour Championship Event Four (2011)". www.snooker.org. Retrieved 2019-03-20.
- "Magical Maximum Seals Rocket Triumph". worldsnooker.com. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association. 28 April 2016. Archived from the original on 6 March 2014. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
- "BetVictor Welsh Open (2014)". www.snooker.org. Retrieved 2019-03-20.
- "BBC Sport - UK Championship 2014: Ronnie O'Sullivan makes 147 break". bbc.com. BBC. 4 December 2014. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
- "Coral UK Championship (2014)". www.snooker.org. Retrieved 2019-03-20.
- "Fuhua Group China Open (2018)". www.snooker.org. Retrieved 2019-03-20.
- "Rocket Fire Magic Maximum". Retrieved 17 October 2018.
- "BetVictor English Open (2018)". www.snooker.org. Retrieved 2019-03-20.
- "Snooker's Top Century Makers". Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 9 June 2007. Retrieved 5 December 2020.
- Beardmore, Michael (12 March 2019). "Ronnie O'Sullivan: As Rocket reaches 1000 centuries, remember his 500th ton in Kidderminster?". The Shuttle.
- "Snooker's Leading Century Makers". Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 29 May 2010. Retrieved 5 December 2020.
- "O'Sullivan holds on against 15-year-old". The Times. 17 August 2013 – via NewsBank.
- Nunns, Hector (22 August 2014). "O'Sullivan homes in on Hendry ton record". Inside Snooker. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
- "Masters 2015: Ronnie O'Sullivan equals Stephen Hendry's record". BBC Sport. 13 January 2015. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
- Hafez, Shamoon (15 January 2015). "Masters 2015: Ronnie O'Sullivan breaks Stephen Hendry's record". BBC Sport. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
- "Ronnie O'Sullivan hits 800th century break in Championship League". BBC Sport. 5 January 2016. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
- "Champion of Champions: Ronnie O'Sullivan and Shaun Murphy to meet in final". BBC Sport. 11 November 2017. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
- "Ronnie O'Sullivan reaches 1,000 career centuries and wins Players Championship". BBC Sport. 10 March 2019.