Top 10 shots of 2021/22 snooker season: No. 2 – Ronnie O’Sullivan sinks outrageous red during Crucible epic

After the conclusion of another extraordinary snooker season, we pick 10 of our favourite shots from the 2021/22 campaign as captured by the Eurosport cameras.

You can vote for your personal choice when we reveal our final list of contenders this month.

No. 2 – O’Sullivan produces stunning red in world semi-final

“The red and black are the two best shots I’ve seen back-to-back in a World Championship semi-final,” said Alan McManus – the 1994 Masters winner – as he reflected upon a trademark moment of Ronnie O’Sullivan genius at the Crucible.

Trailing 9-6 in a taut battle of sporting ebb and flow, Higgins had lost three straight frames, but appeared destined to end the second session only 9-7 adrift on Friday afternoon when he embarked upon a break of 53 in the 16th frame.

He needed one ball to leave his opponent needing snookers, but somehow missed a frame-ball black off the spot.

Leading 58-7, O’Sullivan returned to the table chasing blacks with all three remaining reds to force a re-spot.

After a minor error by Higgins during a safety exchange, O’Sullivan was faced with a tough red down the length of the table to the yellow pocket.

With pink and black close together at the business end of the table, potting the red was difficult enough, but his natural attacking instinct to screw the white off two cushions and land on the black was outlandish even by his own historic exhibits of green baize inspiration.

It was a low-percentage positional shot, but nudging the black made landing on the final red in baulk trickier.

O’Sullivan never wavered as he slowly rolled in the black before nudging red off the cushion to the astonished gasps of the teeming Crucible crowd.

“He’s got no business even attempting to play this, but he gets the spin to take it off the second cushion and underneath the black. He then gets a brush on the black and we think he is so unlucky there,” explained McManus.

“He just about creeps it in and gets the kiss he deserves on the red. Unbelievable, but even then he had still so much to do.”

There was plenty of work remaining for O’Sullivan, but he polished off in true swashbuckling style – with an audacious pot on a mid-range yellow summing up his self-belief – to force a re-spot on the black that he would win to move 10-6 ahead overnight. It was a body blow from which Higgins could not recover.

“A genius at work,” said Jimmy ‘Whirlwind’ White, the six-time Crucible finalist. “He sees some shots no other player sees and he can pull them off too.

“A huge blow for John Higgins, but two of the shots O’Sullivan played there will be replayed for years. Fantastic.”

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