Ronnie O'Sullivan treats Saudi Arabia to his greatest hits as Oasis in the desert revels in Rocket's 147 magic - 'I have never played that well'

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Ronnie O'Sullivan will face Neil Robertson in the best-of-19 frame final of the £2.3m Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters in Jeddah on Saturday, buoyed by arguably the greatest performance of his golden 33-year professional career. The snooker GOAT became the first player in history to hit two 147s in the same session, earning a huge £180,333 bonus before he chases the title and £500,000 first prize.

He’s done it again! Watch as O’Sullivan makes second 147 in stunning semi-final showing

Video credit: TNT Sports

The chalk dust in the desert had barely settled on Ronnie O'Sullivan's momentous display in the semi-finals of the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters before Ken Doherty succinctly summed up what we had just witnessed.

The 6-3 win over Chris Wakelin, an obdurate opponent who produced 125 in levelling at 3-3 in refusing to wilt amid serious heat, under the Friday night lights in Jeddah had to be seen to be believed.

Two pristine maximum breaks of 147 plus other fabulous knocks of 142, 134, 70, 67 and 50 saw O'Sullivan sprinkle gold dust on the sport's richest ranking event beyond the World Championship. And beyond compare.

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The respective 16th and 17th competitive 147s of his gilded career were his first in seven years, but well worth the wait.

"I think it is the greatest exhibition in a best of-11 match, and possibly ever," said the 1997 world champion Doherty on TNT Sports.

Struggling to catch his breath, Doherty added: "The breaks, the two 147s, the 142...I mean, that was just incredible."

Should we really expect anything else from a figure who seems to possess otherworldly powers with cue in hand?

It is always easy to gush whenever you witness O'Sullivan catch fire on such memorable occasions, but the hyperbole surrounding the moment was not lost on the seven-time world champion.

"I have never played that well, I think, in a match before," said O'Sullivan, speaking to World Snooker Tour's media. "I don't know where it came from."

O'Sullivan begins semi-final with incredible 147 at Saudi Arabia Masters

Video credit: TNT Sports

Which is saying something from a notoriously self-critical, but constantly fascinating character, who prefers to lament his errors even at the best of times.

Of which there have been too many to count since he declared his arrival as a genuine sporting goliath at the age of only 17, he remains the youngest ranking event winner in snooker history, with his 10-6 win over Stephen Hendry in the final of the 1993 UK Championship in Preston.

And self-harming at the worst of times, of which there have been too many to count, which included smashing his old cue into pieces during the Championship League in January in Leicester amid a sense of general dismay with the condition of his output.

After the stick-breaking storm in the bleak mid-winter and a self-enforced three-month absence from the sport, O'Sullivan managed to reach the semi-finals of the World Championship in May despite being miles off his top level.

He lost 17-7 to the new world champion Zhao Xintong in the semi-finals, changing the ferrule on his cue before losing the second session 8-0, in tumbling out amid a stinging sense of regret.

But rejuvenated and relocated in nearby Dubai as a newly married man, and armed with a new cue specially constructed by fellow professional Sunny Akani, the grand master has rediscovered his old King Midas touch.

In the summer of the big Oasis comeback, and their greatest hits tour, the ultimate Gallagher lookalike decided to dust down his own greatest hits in Jeddah, an outpost in the desert that suddenly can say they witnessed an oasis sprout up in the form of the evergreen snooker GOAT on August 15, 2025.

Definitely maybe.

‘Dream start’ – O’Sullivan follows up maximum with sublime 142

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The 147 in the first frame was only bettered by the second maximum in the seventh frame, the first double in one session of snooker history worth a whopping bonus of £180,333.

"I heard it was 50 grand for a 147, so I thought that was worth going for," said the record 41-time ranking event winner,"Then I'm thinking: 'If I get another one...let's get another one'..."

It was once suggested that watching Roger Federer play tennis was akin to a religious experience.

That is probably to do with the aesthetically pleasing nature of his talents, and how soothing on the senses it makes the tennis fan feel with the grace and flair of the performance hinting at a higher power.

Well, if this is true, and there are plenty who will disagree, O'Sullivan was like a potting pilgrim on Friday night in carrying the green baize gospel to the disbelievers, exuding a sense of calm and class in his delivery that only he can reach in trying to conquer a sport that was meant, and continues, to torture his very being.

‘A spellbinding performance’ – O’Sullivan puts gloss on mesmeric win with fourth century

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It is easy to gush, but O'Sullivan in full flow is like the eight-time Wimbledon champion Federer brandishing a tennis racquet such is the cathartic, no-nonsense nature of the style, speed and flair in which he pots balls.

At times, it seems more like a vocation than a job. Where does this rank in terms of his greatest individual performances in the sport?

There was of course, his maiden 147 against Mick Price in the first round of the World Championship in 1997.

Achieved in five minutes and 20 seconds, it was later discovered he officially completed the break in only five minutes and eight seconds at a mesmerised Crucible Theatre where even the stopwatch struggled to keep up.

A 6-0 win over a helpless Ricky Walden in the 2014 Masters quarter-finals at London's Alexandra Palace saw him set a new points record in the modern era of 556 points without reply, beating the 495 compiled by China's former Masters champion Ding Junhui in a 6-0 drubbing of Stephen Hendry in the 2007 Premier League.

This match lasted a paltry 57 minutes and 48 seconds.

"Probably the best performance I have seen from anybody in all the years I've been coming to the Masters," commented Doherty back then.

O’Sullivan also rolled in 134 to become the first man to reach 1000 centuries in the last frame of his 10-4 victory over Neil Robertson, who he faces for the £500,000 first prize in Jeddah, in the final of the 2019 Players Championship at Preston’s Guild Hall.

The 6-1 win over Ding in the semi-finals of the 2024 World Grand Prix last January, on his way to the 41st and latest ranking event triumph, saw him produce breaks of 135, two 128s, 124, 79 and 90 in completing victory in one hour and 13 minutes.

"It was one of those I was there nights," said the 1994 Masters champion Alan McManus.

"From the start to the end, it was perfection."

And then came this improvement upon perfection on an august Friday night from O'Sullivan in the unsuspecting city of Jeddah.

"In China you have a different energy, in the UK it is a different energy," said O'Sullivan, who could earn a massive £680,333 for his week's work if he overcomes Robertson in a best-of-19 frame final loaded with possibilities.

"If it was in America, it would be a different energy, and here in Saudi Arabia, in the Middle East, it is a different energy.

"It is a very cosy atmosphere here.

"If you compare Wimbledon to the US Open [in tennis], they go nuts in America, while at Wimbledon, they are a bit more quiet, a bit more reserved.

"That's just the cultural thing. How people are. The crowds have been good here, very cosy, very chilled.

"I prefer playing in this atmosphere than the rowdy ones. I don't like the rowdy thing, it scares me a little bit.

"I like relaxed, calm, playing in a nice cosy atmosphere."

O’Sullivan reacts to making two maximums in ‘maddest game’ to reach final

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It is easy to get distracted by recency bias whenever you reflect on past achievements in any sporting field, but for individual brilliance, this probably tops the lot since O'Sullivan first turned professional in 1992.

On the cusp of turning 50 in December, the astonishing longevity, hunger and desire to improve and preserve his incomparable levels is a life lesson in itself amid the considerable, cut-throat distractions of the outside world.

When O'Sullivan is in his bubble, doing his thing on a snooker table, it allows us all to escape for a moment, to get caught up and share in what he sees in his own vision of the beautiful game as he tries to make the pieces fit in striving for perfection.

Like Federer in full flow, to catch a brief glimpse of what nobody else, but he sees.

In the ever-changing world of sport, it is nice to know some things remain the same.

O'Sullivan is the gift that keeps on giving.