Memorable O'Sullivan moments as snooker great turns 50

It's unlikely there'll ever be another snooker player quite like Ronnie O'Sullivan.

The Englishman, who turned 50 on Friday, is widely regarded as the sport's greatest-ever player, having broken almost every record in the game since turning professional in 1992.

'The Rocket' has an all-time record total of 23 Triple Crown titles - seven world crowns, eight Masters wins and eight victories at the UK Championship.

He has also compiled more century breaks and more maximum 147s than anyone else.

On top of that, he has a record 41 ranking titles to his name, five more than Stephen Hendry's previous mark of 36.

And while O'Sullivan made an early exit from this year's UK Championship, BBC Sport looks at 10 - and it could have been a lot more - memorable moments that have cemented his status as snooker's biggest star as he reaches a personal half-century.

Just over 32 years ago, O'Sullivan became the youngest winner of a ranking event when he captured the UK Championship title.

O'Sullivan defeated Alan McManus, Nigel Gilbert, Ken Doherty, Steve Davis and Darren Morgan before beating Stephen Hendry 10-6 in the 1993 final.

He was aged 17 years and 358 days and it set him on the trajectory to establish numerous other records over the years.

O'Sullivan has compiled 17 maximum breaks over his trophy-laden career but his first in a professional arena is arguably his most memorable and the quickest ever recorded.

It came during the first-round of the 1997 World Championship, with his nickname sticking after he registered a 147 in five minutes and eight seconds, against a stunned Mick Price.

His average shot time was just 8.8 seconds.

Now how about halting play when on eight points to ask if there is a prize for a maximum break?

That's exactly what O'Sullivan did during his win over Mark King at the 2010 World Open.

And then having been told there was no specific prize for a 147, he had to be persuaded to pot the final black by referee Jan Verhaas.

Despite having played only one competitive match all season after taking a sabbatical from snooker, O'Sullivan remarkably won the 2013 World Championship.

Astonishingly he did not lose one session in the tournament and when he defeated Barry Hawkins 18-12 in the final he became only the third player after Steve Davis and Stephen Hendry to defend his title at the Crucible (since then, Mark Selby has become the fourth).

In that contest, O'Sullivan also became the first player to make six century breaks in a world final.

Judd Trump, John Higgins and Neil Robertson all have more than 1,000 century breaks to their name but Ronnie O'Sullivan was first to reach that landmark and currently has the most with 1,313.

He achieved the feat in March 2019 on his way to victory over Australia's Robertson in the Players Championship final.

O'Sullivan set a new record for the fastest match in Crucible history in 2020, when it took him just 108 minutes to complete a 10-1 first-round demolition job on Thepchaiya Un-Nooh.

It shaved 41 minutes off the previous mark set when Shaun Murphy thrashed Luo Hong Hao 10-0 in the first round in 2019.

O'Sullivan arrived at the Crucible in Sheffield in 2022 having returned to the top of the world rankings for the first time since 2019.

And it was not the first time. He regained top spot in the world in March 2019 after a nine-year wait at the age of 43 with his Tour Championship success over Neil Robertson.

That triumph was also notable at the time as it enabled him to match Hendry's then record of 36 ranking titles.

Having won his sixth Crucible crown in 2020, it only seemed a matter of time before O'Sullivan reached his seventh.

And having equalled Davis' record of 30 appearances at the famous Sheffield venue in his first-round match against David Gilbert in 2022, he went on to claim an 18-13 win over Judd Trump in to equal Hendry's record for titles in the modern era.

Aged 46 at the time, he was the oldest world champion in Crucible history, eclipsing Ray Reardon, who won his sixth title aged 45 in 1978.

O'Sullivan became the oldest UK champion with a 10-7 victory over Ding Junhui as he claimed a record-extending eighth title in York.

The Englishman's triumph arrived just two days before his 48th birthday and three decades on from being the youngest player to win the UK Championship, aged 17.

He also remarkably holds the same record at the Masters, which he first won in 1995, with his eighth success coming in January 2024.

Imagine achieving snooker perfection, not once but twice in a best-of-11 encounter. That is exactly what O'Sullivan accomplished in his 6-3 victory over Chris Wakelin in their Saudi Arabia Masters semi-final earlier this season.

In the process, he became oldest player to make a maximum as he delivered a stunning exhibition of cue-ball control.