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Interesting facts about ‘the Rocket’ Ronnie O’Sullivan

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Interesting facts about ‘the Rocket’ Ronnie O’Sullivan
The Rocket, Ronnie O’Sullivan, is one of the best players in snooker and he is declared as the most naturally talented snooker player of all-time by critics for his extraordinary snooker techniques and rapid playing style that distinguishes him among other
players. Apart from this, he is also famous for his controversies on and off the table.
There are 1090 people in UK with the surname, O’Sullivan, which is basically an Irish family name, and none of them is more controversial than Ronnie O’Sullivan. His complete name is Ronald Antonio O’Sullivan and in the snooker world, he is commonly known
as ‘The Rocket’ for his furious game-play.
He turned professional in 1992 at the age of just 16 and won his first ranking title in 1993 at the UK Championship beating Stephen Hendry of Scotland, 10-6, in the final when he was only 17. He became the youngest player ever to win a ranking event. Here
are some interesting facts about the ‘genius’ of snooker.
On-table facts
Ambidexterity
Ronnie O’Sullivan is the only ambidextrous player in the world of snooker. He is a right-hander but has compiled a century break with his left hand too. When he showed his left-hand potting ability at the 1996 World Championship in his first-round match
against Alain Robidoux of Canada, Robidoux made an official complaint and accused him of being disrespectful which Ronnie responded saying that he was better left-handed than Robidoux was with his right hand.
Though Ronnie clinched the match, he had to face a disciplinary hearing on the charge of bringing the game to a dispute and was ordered to prove his left-hand playing ability to the court, so he played three frames with his left hand against Rex Williams
and won them all to drop the charge.
Century breaks
Ronnie O’Sullivan is the second maximum century breaks holder with 621 breaks after seven-time world champion, Stephen Hendry, who has fired 752 century breaks. Both superstars also share the record of most 147 breaks with 10 breaks each.
The 35-year-old also holds the record of the youngest player to fire a century break as he scored his first century break of 117 at the age of ten at East End London, in 1985. At the age of 12, he fired a century clearance of 142 followed by a maximum break
of 147 at the age of 15, a year before turning professional.
Another unique feat from the Rocket, Ronnie O’Sullivan, came in 2007 at the Northern Ireland Trophy when he fired five century breaks of 108, 122, 107, 147 and 129, in all the five frames he won against Ali Carter in the second round.
Rapid game-play
The three-time world champion, Ronnie, is famous for his rapid and furious style of play. He was nicknamed ‘the Rocket’ by MC Alan Hughes in 1992-93, after he clinched the fastest ever victory in the history of snooker when O’Sullivan won the match in just
43 minutes after Tony Drago, who won a best-of-nine frames match in 34 minutes.
O’Sullivan also holds the record of the fastest 147 century ever which he fired in five minutes and 20 seconds in his match against Nick Price, at the 1997 World Snooker Championship.
Off-table facts
Book author
Ronnie O’Sullivan has written an autobiography titled ‘Ronnie: The Autobiography of Ronnie O’Sullivan’ in 2004, which details about his personal and professional life. The book was declared a ‘best seller’ in the Sunday Times.
Popularity
Despite controversies and his bad performances in the current season, he is on top of the snooker world as he is the most famous player on Facebook with 67,951 fans, and also has a growth of 125 followers per week. He stands at number four in the list of
top sportsmen on Facebook after Roger Federer (Tennis) with 6,725,906 fans, Tiger Woods (Golf) with 1,789,002 fans and Lewis Hamilton (Formula One) with 715,328 fans.

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