Good times roll for Rocket Ronnie

13 April 2012

Ronnie O'Sullivan's world title triumph in Sheffield last night was greeted with uncomplicated joy by the 25-year-old from Chigwell, a man who is so often torn apart by a paradox of confused emotion.

Following his 18-14 victory against John Higgins he said. "I feel better than fantastic. I'll get my thesaurus out later and find some words for it. It's magic. A dream come true. The ultimate feeling. John is a fantastic player. He's got bottle and temperament. I've got so much respect for him. Forget snooker.

"He's a class act as a person, the nicest in the game. I won this time, but he'll have a few world championships to his name yet.''

Until recently the person who spoke so gracefully could not have been O'Sullivan. He couldn't live with snooker and he couldn't live without it.

For every blaze of brilliance - such as the 38-match winning streak with which he opened his professional career at the age of 16, or his five-minute 147 break at the Crucible in 1997 - there was an episode of arrogance.

Five years ago at the Crucible he narrowly escaped ejection from the world championship after assaulting an official. In 1998 he was stripped of the Irish Masters after testing positive for cannabis. He insisted endlessly he was about to quit the game. He said he found the public expectation intolerable and yearned to escape it.

Meantime he had a daughter whose paternity he denied and refused to see, even after a court-ordered DNA test proved it. He saw no conundrum in the wound of his own father's enforced absence - Ronnie Senior was sentenced to life for murder in 1992.

Last year saw O'Sullivan spend five weeks in a clinic treated for depression and ''drug-related problems''.

Today he is not all contentment. He still cannot be sure how long he will stay in the game, and he relies heavily on "Big Del'' - his 6ft 7ins minder, Derek Hill - to steer him away from temptation. But a while back he started seeing Taylor, his three-year-old daughter, and now he has officially done justice to his snooker genius. Can't be bad.

"I'm just so happy to have won because you think about Jimmy White and I didn't want to be someone that never won the world title,'' he said. "It wasn't enjoyable. Even when I was seven frames up I wasn't sure I was going to win. I had to fight for everything.

"I was thinking: 'How did Jimmy White even walk in this arena after he'd lost six finals?' I didn't want to hear people say: 'You had it but you missed it.' If I'd lost, it would have been a scar. Maybe I wouldn't have been able to come back.

"Now I've won it, I'm so excited for my family. It's nice for my mum and my dad who loves me to pieces and I love him to bits. It'll mean so much to him and my little sister too. We've been through some hard times. This is a special moment for the family, all together in spirit."

There wasn't too much mistaking the pride of his mother Maria, who was watching the final with his girlfriend Bianca. However the thoughts of the new world champion were with his father, in prison on the Isle of Sheppey.

"I don't know if he was allowed to watch on TV," said O'Sullivan. "I haven't even spoken to him since Sunday morning because I was so nervous I couldn't get two words out. I'll see him as soon as possible. He'll be so happy. Even the screws will be happy."

Individuals are complicated, though. They do not add up to neat little packages, as O'Sullivan proves. "No one can tame me," he said. "I'll still do what I want. I could wake up tomorrow and decide I want to live in Australia or cruise around the world. But I've got people with me now. We've gelled together and it's like a jigsaw fitting. Life is a journey, isn't it?''

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