Ronnie O’Sullivan left the snooker World Championship notwithstanding making another thrilling Crucible moment.
Ding Junhui dared to claim the scalp of the five-time champion, as he won 13-10 and managed to set up a clash with Mark Selby in the semi-finals, which is a repeat of the previous year’s final match-up.
When fighting back Ronnie made an exciting 146 break, which turns to be the third in World Championship history.
Twenty years ago, O’Sullivan managed to pocket up to £165,000 for a World Championship maximum, which took no more five minutes and 20 seconds, though in 2017 his trophy would have been a relatively moderate or to be exact – £15,000.
At the previous year’s Welsh Open, Ronnie managed to turn down a maximum, having learnt the trophy accounted for £12,000.
As he confessed he didn’t expect the trophy to worthy of a 147. Barry Hearn, World Snooker chairman had him criticized for this.