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GOAT! Snooker no longer has the "best in history" battle, and O'Sullivan surpasses Hendry across the board

On May 3, 2022, the Snooker World Championship came to a heavy end, and finally world number one Ronnie O'Sullivan beat Judd Trump 18-13 on aggregate with a 12-5 lead in two stages in the final, winning the snooker World Championship for the seventh time, equaling the total number of world championships held by Stephen Hendry, and reaching the 7th year-end world number one, tying Selby and Davis the 9th year-end world number one after Hendry! After this battle, there is no "best in history" dispute in the snooker world, GOAT! Ronnie O'Sullivan! All arguments will become weak, and all arguments will become sophistry.

The answer to judging the best in history is only data.

GOAT! Snooker no longer has the "best in history" battle, and O'Sullivan surpasses Hendry across the board

The total number of ranking champions is 39-36, the total number of World Championship winners is flat, the total number of "three majors" is 21-18 (seven laps to five laps), the total number of breakers is 1169-776, the total number of 147 full scores is 15-11, the total number of Crucible hundred is 199-127, the total number of Crucible wins is 74-70, the career winning rate is 74.72%-68.54%, the mutual record is 30-21, I don't know what "personalization" there are in addition to these snooker's main statistics. The data can strongly argue that O'Sullivan is not the best in history.

Before that, Hendry also had a hardcore record of seven world championships that could be chewed up repeatedly, but from now on, we have to admit certain facts.

First, talk about efficiency. O'Sullivan, who has played 30 professional seasons, has fully overtaken Hendry, who has played 33 professional seasons, including but not limited to the percentage rate, the total number of wins, the total number of wins, the total tiebreaker win rate, the total number of clean sheets and so on.

GOAT! Snooker no longer has the "best in history" battle, and O'Sullivan surpasses Hendry across the board

Second, talk about dominance. I once came to the conclusion that Hendry was more terrible before the age of 30 and O'Sullivan was even more terrible after the age of 30; the terrible thing about Hendry was the absolute dominance of his "heyday", as long as Hendry played, the opponent would be full of "despair", and the terrible thing about O'Sullivan was that he did not have a "heyday" and could "suffocate" the opponent at any time of his career. To rehash this conclusion, we just want to show that "30 years old to achieve all" and "30 years to achieve all" are not necessarily more awesome, we need to look at what is "dominance" dialectically.

Simply put, no one could have maintained such a strong dominance until he was 30 years old, and no one else could have maintained such a balanced dominance for 30 years. So why can we say that the former is more awesome, or that the latter is more powerful, there is no way to say. For example, "8 consecutive years before the age of 30" and "7 years in the world within 30 years" which is more powerful and which is more difficult, such as "five consecutive world championships before the age of 30" and "7 world championship champions in 30 years" which is more powerful and which is more difficult, dialectically speaking, I am afraid that each has its own difficulty and has its own superiority.

GOAT! Snooker no longer has the "best in history" battle, and O'Sullivan surpasses Hendry across the board

Third, personalized records. Maybe I'll mention some more personalized records like "youngest world champion", but in the face of absolute data, personality has become less important, and who does not have a few records of their own. Robertson's single-season 103-shot break, O'Sullivan's own "youngest ranking champion", "fastest 147 record", "oldest world champion"... It may be possible to cite a string of examples, but in the face of the absolute data that judge the best in history, these so-called personalities have really become dispensable.

Who is the best in history, O'Sullivan and Hendry? After the 2022 World Championships, this topic will disappear. Hendry's supporters don't have to dwell on this, O'Sullivan's supporters don't have to be too arrogant, why not give each other an affirmation, because without such a great opponent, all these records have no meaning.

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