Ronnie O'Sullivan insists he doesn't care about his 147 tally - despite rival Judd Trump's second magical maximum in a month.
Trump is in hot pursuit of O'Sullivan 's record of 15 maximum breaks after knocking in a glorious 147 in his Scottish Open clash against Mitchell Mann. The 2019 world champion blitzed Mann 4-0, and his maximum came in the opening frame of the whitewash.
And Trump is now up to eight maximum breaks in professional tournaments after completing the special feat this year at the Turkish Masters and the Champions of Champions Final earlier this month. Trump's maximum at the prestigious invitational event in Bolton dominated headlines as seven-time world champion O'Sullivan chose not to acknowledge his achievement.
O'Sullivan shrugged off criticism after he was caught in a sportsmanship storm for declining to congratulate Trump with the familiar handshake or fist bump that the feat is usually met with by an opposing player. The Rocket later claimed that he does not find maximums 'difficult to do'.
And the incredibly talented Trump has shown he can also complete 147s with minimal fuss, making significant inroads into O'Sullivan's magnificent record in 2022. But while O'Sullivan expects Trump to eventually claim his record, the 46-year-old remains unbothered due to the lack of financial reward a maximum break comes with.
"Yeah, it [the record] should do really," he told Eurosport. "I do not think it is an important record. I am not really bothered about that one. As soon as they took the [147] prize away from the World Championships, my incentive to get them sort of went away, really. I used to like that one, you know. I think I won £70,000 or something, I think."
O'Sullivan has not made a 147 break since 2018 and claimed before the UK Championship that he would refuse an attempt at a 16th because the £15,000 high break prize was not worthwhile. But Trump certainly sees the value of wowing fans with maximum breaks, and suggested he will now be keeping an eye on O'Sullivan to see if the world No.1 will now make more of a concerted effort to add to his tally.
“I always enjoy 147s, they are always super special to me,” Trump said. “I’ll be trying my best to make them as often as possible It will be interesting to see, now that I’m catching him [O’Sullivan] up a little bit if he will start really going for them again."
He added: “Any time when someone else is playing and on a maximum, you always tune into the live scores – if someone’s on 72 or 80, you always try to find the TV to watch it. It’s always a special feeling, and for my brother and my family there is a lot of hard work that has paid off during the years when it does happen.”
