THE WORLD CHAMPION'S SEASON SO FAR

2020/21 is the sixth season that sees Ronnie O'Sullivan reign as Snooker Champion of the World. Did you know that in each of the other five seasons, O'Sullivan has managed to not just win a trophy, but win a Triple Crown event? His last chance to keep that record is about to arrive.

This season has not been bad for the "Rocket", but despite his consistency, no silverware has been lifted yet. If that's to change before he's introduced at the Crucible to attempt a record-equalling seventh title next month, his last chance is next week at the Tour Championship. An 8-men ranking tournament with the best players of the season. That is a tournament that has long matches from the first round (in this case, aka quarterfinals), and a top-players exclusive environment that always seem to fit Ronnie.

However, at 45 and still playing at a high level, the main goal of Ronnie O'Sullivan's last few years at the top will be chasing that one record he doesn't already have. And for that, what are his chances like judging by the season he's had?

Ronnie's taken big hits this season. Huge finals defeat to John Higgins and Mark Selby were a half of the finals he lost during this campaign. He ran Judd Trump close but did not have enough in the Northern Ireland Open final, and then he lost to the underdog Jordan Brown in a Welsh Open final he should've won.

Add to that a couple semifinals and a quarterfinal, and it's been one of Ronnie's most consistent seasons ever. Performance-wise, his first half of the season was a bit of a struggle as he was grinding through his matches. Probably the result of some lack of practice after his world title in August.

But, although no silverware came, the new year brought a revitalized Ronnie. In the three tournaments he played (disregarding Championship League and WST Pro Series), he played very well. He had defeats against John Higgins in both the Masters quarterfinal and the Players Championship final, but John Higgins is at the moment playing the best snooker on tour, it's not like Ronnie played poorly. 

His only poor match was in the Welsh Open when he lost the final to Jordan Brown. But up to that point he had had a smooth run to reach the final dropping only two frames in the way.

If it was any other player, I would be saying he could do with breaking through a final win to raise his confidence going to Sheffield next month. But Ronnie is far beyond that - too experienced to bother with that, and also lest we forget that his latest win was not a full year ago, since the 2020 World Championship final day was played on August 16 instead of the usual first week of May.

There are many other contenders wishing to deny Ronnie's repeat, the main one at the moment being John Higgins who's playing what I call "impenetrable" snooker and has gotten the better of Ronnie O'Sullivan in two recent big occasions. But I'll leave my predictions to after the Tour Championship. Let's see what happens!

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