RONNIE O’SULLIVAN celebrated his “incredible” achievement of becoming a centurion in ranking tournaments.
The Rocket, 49, recorded breaks of 107 and 112 during the Xi’an Grand Prix.
Ronnie O’Sullivan participated in his 1,000th ranking game on Tuesday.
John Higgins currently holds the record for the most ranking games played with 1,164.
This marked his first match since August 16, as he had skipped the previous three events on the calendar.
This was his 1,000th match in ranking events, a milestone only surpassed by John Higgins (1,164) and Mark Williams (1,075), both of whom are part of the Class of ’92.
The seven-time world champion stated: “It’s amazing. How long have we been around? Thirty-three years as professionals? We even knew each other as juniors.”
“I’ve been competing against Mark Williams since we were 10 years old – that’s 40 years, even through our junior and amateur days.”
“We’ve all had remarkable junior, amateur, and professional careers. It’s truly amazing. A fantastic milestone. Congratulations to Mark and John for achieving that as well.”
“It’s just incredible that we’re still competing.”
“That was a challenging match. I know I won 5-0, but there were two or three frames that could have easily gone Boilko’s way. He was solid and consistent.”
“I haven’t played a match in two months, so it felt a bit unusual to be back in a serious game.”
“I missed three or four tournaments, so I feel a little bit rusty, if that's the right term. But I’m glad to have moved forward.”
“I’m just happy to have won one match here so far. Honestly, I haven’t participated in a tournament for 7-8 weeks. So, I am obviously very, very rusty. If I could win two matches here, I would be extremely pleased.”
Mark Williams has also surpassed the milestone with 1,075 games.
“Preparation on the practice table has been good, but practicing and playing matches are entirely different.”
On Tuesday – the first day of this Chinese event – there were two 147 breaks for the local audience to enjoy.
Initially, world No.1 achieved one in frame five of his 5-2 victory over On-yee Ng, and later, Irishman Aaron Hill accomplished the feat against Huang Jiahao, marking his second 147 in three weeks.
This season has seen 13 maximum breaks, and the record of 15 for the 2024-25 season is likely to be broken amid concerns that the pockets may be playing larger this campaign.
World No.4 O’Sullivan, who hit TWO 147 breaks in the same match in Jeddah in August – a feat that has only occurred once before in professional sports.
When asked why he thinks there have been so many perfect frames recently, he chuckled: “The reason I got mine was because there was £197,000 at stake.”
“The prize was substantial that day, so it focused my mind. I’m not sure what the prize fund is for this tournament.”
“But typically, it’s relatively low in comparison. Of course, I won’t take the risk unless I believe it’s worth it.”
“I think the standard of play is exceptionally high, and many players are capable of making significant breaks these days.”
