UK Championship: Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark Williams and John Higgins set to emulate Phil Mickelson in new age for snooker
By Desmond Kane
Published 22/11/2024 at 16:33 GMT
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Snooker's 'Phil Mickelson moment' is almost upon us with Ronnie O'Sullivan, Mark Williams and John Higgins among the favourites to win the 48th UK Championship - live on Eurosport and discovery+. Mickelson became the first golfer to break the glass ceiling of lifting a major beyond the age of 50 as US PGA Champion in 2021. Snooker is following a similar trajectory via its timeless 'Class of '92'.
O'Sullivan emotional as he clinches UK Championship glory with stunning clearance
Video credit: TNT Sports
A golden age of enlightenment is upon us in snooker, several decades after age was deemed a vicious assassinator of ambition on the old green baize.
The UK Championship - live on Eurosport and discovery+ - will mark its 40th anniversary this year as a ranking event, one dripping with potting prestige and a wider cultural significance in the sporting landscape of the host country.
The 1984 UK final at the Guild Hall in Preston saw Steve Davis enjoy a dominant 16-8 win over Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins before a packed pro-Higgins crowd and TV audience of millions across Blighty's enlivened living rooms.
It enabled Davis to avenge a haunting 16-15 loss to his fierce foe a year earlier when the Northern Irishman somehow recovered from 7-0 down to lift his solitary UK title in its final edition as a non-ranking tournament.
One tends to forget how young Davis was when he was gingerly conquering Essex and the world with a fearsome percentage game.
The Romford professional was only 23 when he carried off the trophy for the first time with a 16-6 win over Higgins in 1980, before adding further victories at the tournament in 1985, 1986 and 1987.
Growth of the sport
When Davis returned to the final at the age of 48 in York in 2005, it was viewed as a minor miracle.
The six-time world champion – his Crucible victories a fading memory coming way back when, between 1981 and 1989 – defied accepted norms to mix it with heavier scorers who had long since ended his iron grip on the sport.
His oil rush in the 1980s was followed by some arid times in the ensuing decade, but time has been kind to Davis and a renowned generation of potting pioneers from the sport's TV boom period.
The development and growth of the sport beyond the UK suggests it was ability rather than age which was key to his demise.
Stephen Hendry was already flourishing in the early 1990s, a decade in which he would win seven world titles, but the addition of Ronnie O'Sullivan, John Higgins and Mark Williams to the mix in 1992 merely hastened the Davis descent from glory before King Hendry was soon forced to abdicate.
Quite remarkably, especially when you study the recent output of O'Sullivan and Williams in collecting garlands with some regularity, Davis was 37 when he claimed the last of his 28 ranking titles in the 1995 Welsh Open final with a 9-3 filleting of John Higgins.
The last of his celebrated career wins came at the age of 39 with a 10-8 win over O'Sullivan in the 1997 Masters from 8-4 behind in the old Wembley Conference Centre, when he had the air of an elder statesman about him.
As it was, Davis came up narrowly short in the 2005 UK final, losing 10-6 to an 18-year-old Ding Junhui in what was his last final appearance at a major ranking event.
Altered the script
The general narrative in the sport back then was one of decline and decay for any player beyond 35, with 40 hardly a decade to prepare for fresh beginnings.
A viewer could not watch a match involving Davis or Hendry beyond their peak without hearing the words: "He never used to miss those..."
The late Welsh great Doug Mountjoy was probably viewed as a player from a prehistoric potting era when he managed to shock Hendry 16-12 to become UK champion at the age of 46 in 1988.
Hendry – who enjoyed wins over Davis in finals in 1989 and 1990 during his rise to the world No. 1 ranking – was only 36 when he won the 36th and final ranking event of his career at the 2005 Malta Cup, with a 9-7 victory over fellow Scot Graeme Dott.
But in snooker, the times are changing about what can be achieved if heart, mind and hunger hold up. Longing is as relevant as longevity in the modern era of the game.
It would be fair to say O'Sullivan will not lack a champion's will to win or self-belief when he begins his UK title defence against Barry Hawkins on Saturday afternoon.
"On his day, when he plays his best, he’s still the best player in the world," said Hendry on the eve of this year's tournament.
Williams, O'Sullivan and Higgins have already altered a rapidly revised script in snooker about what can be achieved with Mark Selby, Neil Robertson and Shaun Murphy also holding up well in their 40s.
Selby defeated Higgins 10-5 in the British Open final in September with Robertson securing a 24th ranking title with a 9-7 win over Wu Yize in the English Open final a week earlier.
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1,000 centuries! Higgins gets standing ovation for 'tremendous achievement'
Video credit: TNT Sports
Indeed, of the top 16 seeds in the sport who will line up at the Barbican for the impending UK Championship, only Si Jiahui and Luca Brecel are still in their 20s.
The rest are battle-hardened blokes who have witnessed more run of the ball than a roulette table at Lake Tahoe.
Revelation of O'Sullivan
Quite remarkably, it feels like Williams has learned to win all over again.
The Welshman was ready to retire from the sport after failing to qualify for the World Championship at the age of 42 in 2017, but returned a year later to lift the trophy for a third time with an epic 18-16 triumph against Higgins - 15 years after his second Crucible win.
For his part, Higgins has been agonisingly close to adding serious silverware to his collection of 31 ranking victories.
He has lost seven finals in the past three years, including three final-frame deciders to Mark Allen and Neil Robertson twice at the Northern Ireland Open, English Open and Tour Championship.
It would be fair to say that Williams has not looked back since working to improve his technique, if not his unflustered temperament, with eight elite events lifted over the past seven years, including the prestigious German Masters, World Open and Tour Championship.
He was only denied the 2022 Masters and 2024 Saudi Arabia Masters titles in narrow defeats to world No. 1 Judd Trump in London and Riyadh, respectively, before he returned to Bolton with a change of cue to hoist the Champion of Champions trophy above his head with a 10-6 win over Xiao Guodong in the final.
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'Emphatic finish' - Williams clears the table to secure dominant whitewash over Clarke
Video credit: TNT Sports
When asked if this was a second wind in his 32-year career, Williams, who turns 50 in March, replied: "Probably a third wind. I honestly don't know how I'm doing it.
"I know I'm hitting the ball well. The older I seem to be getting, the more support I seem to be getting from the crowd than I ever had.
"It's a nice feeling, and I think that is helping me play better too, when you have most of the crowd cheering for you."
Mark Allen was quick to offer his analysis: "Ridiculous again from Mark Williams to be still be one of the very best in the game at his age is not normal."
Yet this has become the new normal in snooker with the optics altered by otherworldly talent.
Snooker GOAT O'Sullivan has been a revelation in recent years, carrying off 14 of his 41 career ranking events since turning 40, including two world titles to equal Hendry's record and three UK Championship crowns in a record-extending haul of eight.
He has also collected another three Masters, three of his five Shanghai Masters victories and two of his four wins at the Champion of Champions.
O'Sullivan carted off the UK Championship, a tournament first staged a year after he was born, for the eighth time with a rousing 10-7 win over Ding days before turning 48 a year ago.
He became the youngest and oldest winner of the UK Championship 35 years after Mountjoy had etched his name in the history books.
He would then become the youngest and oldest winner of the Masters in January, with a 10-7 win over Ali Carter.
A new age
It is worth asking not if 50 is the new 40 in snooker, but perhaps the new 30 - the age when Davis won his final UK title in 1987.
Phil Mickelson rampaged his way to six majors, but 'Lefty' broke new ground by becoming the first golfer to bring up a half-century then claim a major when he claimed the US PGA Championship around Kiawah Island in 2021.
"I’ve failed many times in my life and career and because of this I’ve learned a lot," he said.
"Instead of feeling defeated countless times, I’ve used it as fuel to drive me to work harder. So today, join me in accepting our failures. Let’s use them to motivate us to work even harder."
It feels like we are heading towards similar poignant days in another still-ball sport. Can a snooker player in their 50s become world champion?
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No Filter: Behind the scenes as O'Sullivan wins record eighth Masters crown
Video credit: TNT Sports
"I've already broken the rules for snooker," said O'Sullivan at the World Championship in April. "I'm still going at 48, 49, and I'm seeing what's possible now.
"Can I win a World Championship at 50, who knows? I'm probably the only player able to do that but let's see, let's have an experiment."
The era when a snooker player was deemed a has-been at 40, once blamed on family commitments, fitness, lack of focus or fading eyesight, or something else, has long gone.
Williams and O'Sullivan are rewriting the narrative on what can be achieved if your game holds up.
Both are provisionally ranked inside the top four in the end of season rankings, with Higgins also inside the elite top 16.
Perhaps the secret to their ongoing success is their ability to play a young man's game among a horde of aspirational rivals.
At times, watching O'Sullivan almost becomes a cathartic sporting experience for viewers, with points for style upper most in his mind.
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Ray Reardon remains the oldest winner of a ranking event courtesy of a 10-5 win over Jimmy 'Whirlwind' White in the 1982 Players Tournament at the age of 50 and 14 days, but the six-time world champion's long-standing record will surely go soon.
Snooker is entering a new age, one where the unbearable weight of massive talent has remarkably shifted the sands of time.
While the end of the Davis and Hendry dynasties came swiftly, these days Father Time has apparently swapped his scythe for a snooker cue.
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Watch and stream the UK Championship live on Eurosport and discovery+
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