‘Ronnie’s a one-off’ – Neal Foulds doubts anyone can emulate Ronnie O’Sullivan achievements in snooker

Ronnie O’Sullivan is celebrating the 30th anniversary of winning his maiden ranking tournament title at the UK Championship at the age of 17.

The “Rocket”, as he is now known, beat legendary player Stephen Hendry in the 1993 final as a teenager to become the youngest-ever player to win a ranking event.

Three decades later, O’Sullivan is about to chase a 22nd Triple Crown title and Eurosport’s Neal Foulds does not believe anyone will ever match his achievements.

“Just in the space of a bit of time, it was obvious. The trouble is, a lot of people say now ‘I’d like to emulate Ronnie’, but I don’t think anyone ever will,” Foulds told Eurosport.

“Whatever they achieve, and there are some brilliant players around, Ronnie’s a bit of a one-off really because, at the age of about 12 or 13, he was as good as a lot of the professionals back then.

Looking back to O’Sullivan’s maiden title win, Foulds added: “We knew how good he could be at that stage, but to win the UK Championship at age 17, come on, that’s something that’s never been repeated.

“He’s still the youngest-ever ranking tournament winner. One or two players have got to finals and nearly beaten it, but none of them would have been in the UK Championships because it is a big event and it was then.

“That was 30 years ago and that’s the thing about Ronnie’s career, it’s such longevity, isn’t it? Now he’s still up there as world No. 1 all these years later. It’s incredible.”

Jimmy White reflected on the moment the snooker world realised the potential O’Sullivan possessed.

“What I remember about that final with Ronnie O’Sullivan, obviously we know how good he was, I’d played him in one of the qualifying matches in Blackpool as well,” he said.

“Stephen Hendry’s face when he shook his hand, it was like he just knew what a force had arrived. Boy, what a player he is.”

O’Sullivan, who has racked up seven UK Championship wins in his career, will begin his latest campaign on Tuesday when he faces Scotland’s Anthony McGill.