Ronnie O’Sullivan breaks all records

Records do not interest him, claims Ronnie O'Sullivan. That may even be true. Because the records just seem to fall to him. His triumph at the Tour Championship in Welsh Llandudno was his 36th victory in a ranked tournament. He has caught up with Stephen Hendry.

Only in the number of finals reached is Stephen Hendry still ahead. The Scot has been 57 times in a ranking event in the final, with Ronnie O'Sullivan there are so far 51 finals. But you can set the clock after that O'Sullivan will outbid that, too. Solely for Hendry, with seven World Cup titles in hand, it will be hard to beat, but not impossible.

At the same time, Ronnie O'Sullivan has recaptured the top of the world rankings after nine years. This is all the more remarkable because he has played only seven of the 18 ranked tournaments this season. This underlines once again that Ronnie O'Sullivan usually plays in his own league. Although Judd Trump has been able to annoy and beat him several times this season, no one is able to hold him up all the time. He continues to set the standards.

By the way, O'Sullivan is the oldest player at the helm since Ray Reardon in 1983; he was 50 years old at the time (O'Sullivan can handle that, too)