Ronnie O’Sullivan shrugged off suggestions of greatness on the eve of his bid to eclipse Stephen Hendry and become the first player to win eight world snooker titles in the modern era.

O’Sullivan is already routinely described as the best player to pick up a cue after a record-breaking career that includes eight Masters and eight UK titles within a total of 41 ranking tournament wins.

But the 48-year-old, who starts his first round match against Welsh qualifier Jackson Page on Wednesday, has never been one to pore over the record books, and questions whether such plaudits are worth having at all.

“I don’t regard myself as the greatest of all time,” said O’Sullivan. “Statistically I suppose I am, but I’m just happy to be playing.

“I suppose as a kid I would have been desperate to be up with those guys but when you get there it’s a bit of an anti-climax – it’s not as great as you thought it would be.”

O’Sullivan, who won his first world title in 2001, currently sits on seven alongside Hendry, with Davis and Ray Reardon one behind on six wins each.

Yet while the title-winning eras of those fellow greats spanned less than a decade, O’Sullivan’s longevity, which shows all the signs of pushing on beyond a quarter of a century, makes the reign of the ‘Rocket’ indisputably unique.

“I’ve had a different career to them,” added O’Sullivan. “They just did it over a 10-year period while I’ve sort of gone off track for five or six years, then got myself back together, then disappeared for another three years, then got myself back together again.

“I was a bit all over the shop really, stuff going on off the table that can affect how you perform. Hendry and Davis had everything fitted around them to focus on snooker, but that’s how it worked out for me, so I’ve had to go on longer.”

“I love playing, I enjoy it. I get to travel where I want, take time off when I want, be my own boss. It’s those little things, and you want to win because competitiveness has always been in me.

Amid more top-level retirement talk, with Mark Selby the latest to question his future in the sport after his first round defeat to Joe O’Connor, O’Sullivan appears to be heading back to the Crucible intent on many more attempts to increase his legacy.

He has linked up with a new coach and is clearly putting the effort in ahead of his opener against 22-year-old Page, who beat Barry Hawkins on his Crucible debut two years ago before suffering a heavy defeat to Mark Williams in round two.

O’Sullivan added: “I love playing, I enjoy it. I get to travel where I want, take time off when I want, be my own boss. It’s those little things, and you want to win because competitiveness has always been in me.

“I’m pretty cool with what I’ve done and I’d like to keep winning more. Whether that makes me the greatest or not, I don’t know. It really doesn’t matter.”

Four-time champion Mark Selby is on the brink of crashing out of the World Championship at the first hurdle after losing the first session of his first round match 7-3 to debutant Joe O’Connor.

Selby, who questioned his future in the sport after losing to Gary Wilson in the Tour Championship earlier this month, was second best against his Leicester rival, who reeled off five frames in a row to leave himself in a commanding position ahead of Monday’s resumption.

The 40-year-old Selby has endured a dismal season by his standards, reaching one ranking tournament final and two semi-finals, but has traditionally reserved his best form of the season for the Crucible.

Despite sharing the opening two frames, Selby looked distinctly out of sorts and two centuries in three frames sent O’Connor three frames clear, before two further half-centuries sealed a sensational debut performance from the 28-year-old.

O’Connor, who has previously tried and failed seven times to reach the Crucible, is the only debutant in this year’s field, and requires just one more century on Monday to equal the record for a first-time performer at the venue.

Eleventh seed Zhang Anda followed defending champion Luca Brecel out of the tournament as he was hammered 10-4 by last year’s surprise quarter-finalist Jak Jones.

Resuming 5-2 in front after their abridged opening session on Saturday, Jones chiselled his way over the line with a top break of 60, while Zhang’s 95 in the 13th frame proved much too little, too late.

Jones, who beat Neil Robertson last year en route to the last eight, will face either fellow Welshman Mark Williams or last year’s surprise semi-finalist Si Jiahui in round two.

Defending champion Luca Brecel has been battling a mystery illness in the build-up to his return to the World Snooker Championship on Saturday.

A nosedive in form and the so-called ‘Crucible curse’ – in which no first-time winner has ever managed to retain the title – are not the only issues afflicting the 29-year-old, who faces a tough opener against former semi-finalist Dave Gilbert.

“I’ve lost my voice a couple of times and I’ve had headaches, a bit like Covid,” said Brecel. “It’s been coming and going ever since the tournament in Saudi (in March), but it’s too big not to play in this one.”

Despite his stunning breakthrough win last season, Brecel heads to the Crucible with arguably the lowest expectations of any returning champion, having reached a solitary ranking event quarter-final this season.

And the Belgian is more than happy to accept the underdog status, adding: “I’m up against a very good player and Dave is probably the favourite to beat me, so it’s a nice challenge.”

Brecel claimed he never practised in the build-up to his famous win last year, in which he edged Ricky Walden in a final-frame decider in the opening round before going on to seal epic back-to-back wins over Ronnie O’Sullivan, Si Jiahui and Mark Selby.

This year he has at least been putting in the hours on the practice table, and says that having achieved his lifetime goal he is able to approach the Crucible with a more pressure-free mindset.

“I remember when I played Ricky last year in the decider I was really nervous at 9-9, and if goes to 9-9 now I won’t feel any nerves,” added Brecel.

“There’s nothing higher than winning the worlds and when you have that goal you always put pressure on yourself, and if you don’t get close to that goal you get frustrated.

“It’s much easier now. I don’t have that any more. I’ve won it before so it’s just about trying to be a better payer and a better person. That’s my goal now.

Brecel and Gilbert will play to a finish on the opening day, while Judd Trump gets his quest for a second title under way against Hossein Vafaei, and two-time finalist Ali Carter starts against Stephen Maguire.

Former world champion Neil Robertson will miss out on the Crucible for the first time in 20 years after losing in the final round of World Championship qualifying.

The 42-year-old Australian, who won the title in 2010, was beaten 10-9 by Welshman Jamie Jones, whose break of 60 in the decider was enough to take him through for the sixth time.

Robertson last missed out on the Crucible in 2004 but a desperate season, in which he has reached just one tour semi-final, sent him out of the world’s top 16 and into the qualifying stages.

Robertson had looked set to pull away and book his place in Thursday’s first-round draw after winning four frames in a row to lead 8-5.

But Jones responded by reeling off the next three and went on to claim his first win over Robertson after heavy defeats in all seven of their previous meetings.

Jones said: “Neil has buried me every time I’ve played him, so I haven’t got good memories of playing him before but I stuck with him.

“I don’t know what it is about this tournament but there is something that just brings out the best in me.”

Former world champion Shaun Murphy has backed the announcement of Saudi Arabia’s first ever invitational snooker event and the introduction of a new golden ball which could increase the maximum break to 167.

The inaugural Riyadh Season World Masters of Snooker will take place in March with seven-time world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan set to feature in the 10-player field alongside 2019 world champion Judd Trump and current holder Luca Brecel.

The tournament will see the introduction of a 23rd golden ball, known as the Riyadh Season ball, which will be worth 20 points, but can only be potted once a maximum break of 147 has been completed.

Murphy urged traditionalists to give the novel idea a chance, likening it to the single-frame Snooker Shoot-Out, which was met with plenty of resistance when it was introduced, but has evolved into a permanent fixture on the world ranking calendar since 2017.

Murphy, who as the current world number six is set to feature in the tournament, told the PA news agency: “It was heresy when the Shoot-Out was brought in as a ranking event – people were nearly out with torches on the streets – but I haven’t met a single person who has been to the Shoot-Out and not enjoyed it.

“You should never criticise something unless you’ve tried it. It’s just something different and it’s not the first time the sport has tried new ideas.

“I imagine they (World Snooker Tour) had to make a few concessions to get the event over the line, and the new promoters in Saudi will want their event to stand out and be different. At the end of the day you’d rather have the event than not.”

Precise details of the format relating to the golden ball are yet to be revealed, but the PA news agency understands that WST is not considering the introduction of the ball for any other tournaments.

The Saudi tournament, due to be held in Riyadh from March 4-6 and featuring the top eight players in the world and a prize pool of one million US dollars, will not offer the highest break in the sport’s history.

A short-lived experiment in 1959 saw the introduction of a ‘Snooker Plus’ tournament, which included two additional colours, an orange ball worth eight points and a purple worth 10, which raised the theoretically available maximum to 210.

The announcement of the Saudi event, hailed as a “huge breakthrough” by WST chairman Steve Dawson, was met with some resistance from lower-ranked players, with 2023 Shoot-Out semi-finalist Steven Hallworth tweeting: “Was starting to lose sleep with worry that the top 8 players might run out of events and cash soon, thank God for this”.

Amnesty International criticised snooker’s addition to the growing list of sports heading to the kingdom, calling on those involved to seize the opportunity to speak out about human rights abuses.

Peter Frankental, Amnesty International UK’s Economic Affairs director, said: “It was just a matter of time before Saudi Arabia’s huge sportswashing machine sucked in snooker along with almost every other major world sport.

“If the likes of Ronnie O’Sullivan and Judd Trump play in Riyadh, they shouldn’t hesitate to speak out about human rights.”

For all that Murphy accepts the relevance of continued expressions of concern, the 41-year-old insists neither those prospective invitees, nor the sport itself, should be in any quandary about being part of the historic deal.

“Obviously there is a question over human rights as there should be, but if we (WST) only traded with countries with perfect human rights records, it would be a very, very small pool to pick from,” added Murphy.

“We wouldn’t be trading with the UK either. We haven’t covered ourselves in glory over hundreds of years, going around invading other countries, so people in glass houses need to be careful where they throw their stones.”