most important records in snooker

Recently, Stephen Hendry announced he's coming back out of an eight years long retirement for at least another two seasons on tour. That came after Ronnie O'Sullivan closed in on his record of 7 World Titles winning a sixth of his own on August.

Although Ronnie's world title at 44, one year older than Hendry when he retired, I think not even Hendry himself believes that by coming back he can hold Ronnie from getting all of his records. In fact, Ronnie already has taken most of the main records in snooker off Hendry and the latter is unlike to retain any of these record or add to his World Championship tally. For the fans it'll about the nostalgia of seeing this all-time great player again and for him it'll be about checking out where his game still stands at when compared to the current professionals. 

Whatever Hendry return may be like, it'll be good to have the two greatest players ever on tour at the same time, and for a warm-up to that I rank here the 10 best records in snooker:

World Championship: Stephen Hendry, 7

We know the three triple crown torunaments are something else in comparison to any other snooker tournament, but the World Championship is not just snooker's main event - it's also one of the greatest sporting events in the world.

Most Triple Crown titles: Ronnie O'Sullivan, 20

The "Triple Crown" events consist of the World Championship, the Masters and the UK Championship. They are the sport's major events and very few players, 11 to be exact, have ever won all three of them.

Masters: Ronnie O'Sullivan, 7

UK Championship: Ronnie O'Sullivan, 7

It's never been clear which of the other triple crown events was second to the World Championship. I'd say that until the 2010's the UK Championship meant more, but lately the format changes in it have not made everyone happy and the Masters seems to have established itself as snooker's second biggest event.

Most Ranking Titles: Ronnie O'Sullivan, 37

Most Titles: Steve Davis, 80

There are a lot of tournaments out there and a lot of different winners, but to win in a regular basis will always separate a player from the field. I had to mention the record for most titles as well as the most ranking titles because the number of ranking tournaments per season just keeps going up and I didn't want to be unfair with the past players.

Century Breaks: Ronnie O'Sullivan, 1054 (as of August 2020)

Maximum Breaks: Ronnie O'Sullivan, 15 (as of August 2020)

Most Centuries in one season: Neil Robertson, 103

We know centuries and 147s only mean one frame. But it's always been one of the records that people have mentioned the most during snooker events. I personally get more impressed by title wins than by centuries and maximums, but you can't deny that players and fans seem to look up to these records a lot.

Most Ranking Titles in one season: Judd Trump, 6

There's an argument that this record should be above centuries records, but two points made me put centuries ahead: one is that people look up to centuries record a lot more as I've mentioned, and the other is that with how many ranking tournaments there are these days, I don't think anyone has ever taken this record to another level yet.

That's it then. There may be other records that may not be mentioned, but I believe that these are the ones that stand out and will always be targeted. I didn't mention most triple crown titles in a single season because I think that's more of an achievement than an actual record once there's the limit of three that has been reached by three different players: Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry and Mark Williams.

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