O’Sullivan turns on the style to delight of Hearn

Level at 2-2 with World No 33 Dominic Dale in their first-round tie, the three-time world champion turned on the style to reel off five successive frames and take a stranglehold on the best-of-19 frame match at 7-2.

O’Sullivan even threatened to score a 147 – which would have been his fourth at the Crucible and 11th in all – potting a dozen reds, and blacks, and looking odds-on for a maximum before missing the 13th red.

And all this from a player so troubled by personal problems, that he phoned World Snooker up before the tournament to drop the bombshell that he would not be appearing at Sheffield this year.

Twenty-four hours later he did a U-turn, and if ‘The Rocket’ can repeat and sustain yesterday’s display he will be the player to beat to lift the world title on May 2.

World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn recognises O’Sullivan is the kind of box-office attraction that snooker badly needs, but is adamant no player can be bigger than the game.

“I love Ronnie O’Sullivan,” said Hearn. “The first question that comes up is about Ronnie O’Sullivan, doesn’t that sum it all up.

“Ronnie is news, and it’s great for snooker. Gives us something to talk about.

“Now, I don’t know what Ronnie O’Sullivan is going to do and I am not so sure that Ronnie O’Sullivan knows what he is going to do.

“Ronnie’s playing today, did he think about pulling out? Yes, I think so. He probably thought about a lot of things, but he’s here and playing and I welcome him. I love the boy to death, he’s a fabulous snooker player, and rather than people say to me ‘Do you have a problem with Ronnie?’ I wish I had 10 Ronnie O’Sullivans.

“I will put up with it. I watched a TV show about Alex Higgins last night and we miss people like that, and I would miss Ronnie. I want to see the real Ronnie, but he’s special, he’s a special person.”

Hearn, who has helped revamp the sport in the last 12 months, would like O’Sullivan to return to being what he calls a “flag-bearer” for snooker.

But he insists a new wave of emerging talent, like 21-year-old Judd Trump who won the China Open earlier this month, can help fill the gap should O’Sullivan opt to stay out of the spotlight.

O’Sullivan lost in the first round of four successive major tournaments this season, and even pulled out of this year’s German Masters and Shanghai Masters, the latter due to the father-of-two claiming he needed to spend more time with his young family.

“Ronnie has had a very tough year,” said Hearn. “He has dropped the flag because of what he has been going through, and I wish the boy every happiness more than anything else.

“But I have got 10 other flag-bearers out there. It’s like the Charge of the Light Brigade, when someone goes down, another picks up the flag.

“Judd Trump came back from the China Open a hero – I am looking around and seeing kids who want to take the opportunity.

“I would love Ronnie to pick up the flag again, when he’s ready, when he’s happy, I am happy.

“We can’t make exceptions for him, but we try to put our arm around him and ask how we can help. We have tried to help throughout the year with Ronnie’s personal problems, he has had a lot of issues, and we have tried to help him.

“But at the end of the day we are running the sport for the benefit of the 96 professional players in the world, the sponsors and the television broadcasters.

“I would love to see Ronnie win the World Championship. That would be great, and I just want to see the very best play the very best.

“I would like to see everyone happy, but if they are not happy with what’s happening and the progress snooker is making, I can’t do anything more for them. They either pick up the flag, or walk home.”

Yesterday’s display from the 35-year-old was pure genius in front of a sell-out Crucible, music to the ears of Hearn, who yesterday revealed prize money for next season would peak at £6m – from £3.5m 12 months ago – adding that more overseas tournaments were in the pipeline.

O’Sullivan had a chance of a 147 in the second frame of the match, after knocking in eight reds and blacks, before running out of position while running the white up and down the table.

His fluent 78 break was followed by further scores of 96, 113 and 73 to leave him needing just three frames when his match resumes this afternoon to clinch a second-round meeting with 2005 world champion Shaun Murphy.