Ronnie O’Sullivan’s route to the World Snooker Championship final as he looks to surpass Stephen Hendry

Ronnie O’Sullivan is already widely regarded as the greatest player to pick up a snooker cue and he always goes into the World Championship with arguably more attention than the rest of the field put together.

The only other occasion was 2013, a season which The Rocket spent most of it away from the tour after his fourth triumph, before putting on an incredible performance on his way to beating Barry Hawkins in the final.

He hasn’t gone beyond the quarter-finals of a ranking tournament this season, but did win the Hong Kong Masters and Champion of Champions.

Form doesn’t matter in snooker though, especially at the Crucible and it really is all about how you perform on the day, or days, versus your opponent.

It would be so easy to get carried away by predicting who O’Sullivan could face on his way to the final, so we are doing exactly that. Don’t read on if you believe in jinxing.

Round 1: O’Sullivan v Pang

O’Sullivan pulled out of the WST Classic in March due to, what appeared to be, a repeat of his tennis elbow problem that he suffered at the start of the season.

Pang is an attacking player which should suit O’Sullivan, who has only lost in the first round four times. One of those occasions was his debut in 1993.

Round 2: O’Sullivan v Ding

Ding Junhui v Hossein Vafaei is one of the picks in the opening round, but you would count on the Chinese player’s experience and consistency to shine through.

Should it be a tough victory for Ding over Vafaei, he might find it difficult to raise his game for O’Sullivan.

O’Sullivan has a great record against Ding, winning 20 of the 30 matches they have played, but has lost to the world No. 16 twice this season.

Quarter-finals: O’Sullivan v Williams

Feel like you have seen this pathway already? Well you have because in 2020, O’Sullivan played Ding in the second round then Mark Williams in the quarter-finals.

Williams is the dark horse for the Crucible and his results this season have not showed how well he has played at times.

Again, the Welshman doesn’t have the best head-to-head against O’Sullivan though with just 13 wins out of the 50 matches played.

Semi-finals: O’Sullivan v Murphy

You might be thinking why isn’t Judd Trump in this part of the article. Well, Trump has not been at his best at any point this season and arguably for the last few years.

Even though he won the Masters, the Ace in the Pack admitted it was with his B-game and he seems to have plenty of mistakes in him.

This is where Shaun Murphy comes in. Yes, we said form doesn’t matter, and Murphy is the form-man right now, but he also goes well at the Crucible.

Final: O’Sullivan v Selby

This would be very special wouldn’t it? The top two in the world in a repeat of the 2014 final where Selby stunned O’Sullivan in a match which the latter referenced six years later when he beat the Jester from Leicester in the 2020 semi-finals.

Selby’s style suits the long World Championship format down to the ground and, on paper, he has an easier route to the final than O’Sullivan.

John Higgins could be a problem for Selby in the quarter-finals, so you could easily substitute the Scottish player’s name here.

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