Northern Ireland Open 2020 – Ronnie O'Sullivan reveals he's playing fastest snooker of his career

ByEurosport

Updated 20/11/2020 at 10:08 GMT

Ronnie O'Sullivan is showing no signs of slowing down with World Snooker Tour stats showing he is vying for top spot as the game's fastest player. The world champion has an average shot time quicker than fellow speed merchant Judd Trump and is narrowly behind world number 15 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, who he defeated 4-2 to reach the quarter-finals of the Northern Ireland Open.

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Ronnie O'Sullivan might be among snooker's older gunslingers, but the world champion shows no signs of slowing down.

The six-times Crucible winner averaged 14.8 seconds in his 4-1 win over world number 82 Jamie O'Neill in the first round of the Northern Ireland Open and weighed in with 17.7 seconds against Thepchaiya Un-Nooh in the last 16, who boasted 16.9 seconds in losing 4-2 to the Rocket.

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"I felt quite slow," he said after downing O'Neill.

I've got quite a quick brain I suppose and my positional play is decent so I don't have to walk that far to the next ball.

O'Sullivan has an overall average shot time of 17.97 this season just behind Un-Nooh's 17.92.

World number one Judd Trump comes in at 19.26 over the campaign. Defending champion Trump meets Scott Donaldson in the opening quarter-final as he chases a third successive Northern Ireland title with O'Sullivan, who has lost 9-7 to Trump in the previous two finals, facing Ding Junhui, who defeated John Higgins 4-1 in the last 16 at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.

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"I'm as fast now as I was as a kid, the other day I was on 14 seconds a shot," said O'Sullivan, who famously made the sport's fastest 147 in five minutes and eight seconds at the 1997 World Championship. "I'm not as good as I was, but still fast.

I play snooker more as a hobby. I practised last week, I did about 20 hours, which I hadn't done since I was 17 or 18.

"At my age, I want to tick over. I just love playing snooker. I think you have to find ways of loving it."

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Six-times world finalist Jimmy 'Whirlwind' White concludes that O'Sullivan is still the game's ultimate speed merchant.

"He's still the fastest player in the world, I think he was 17 or 18 seconds when he was younger," commented White.

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