In the first round of the 2024 World Snooker Championships, the defending champion O'Sullivan broke 100 in a single stroke and advanced to the round of 16 with a record of only losing 1 game. The excellent form also makes the Rockets more confident to achieve the super history of the "38" Grand Slam, and according to the schedule, O'Sullivan and Trump are in the same half zone, which is also his strongest opponent on the way to the finals.
In the first stage, O'Sullivan took the lead, and in the first 4 games, 3 of them hit 50+ with a single shot, and quickly took a 4-0 lead. After halftime, O'Sullivan directly hit a single shot of 122 points again, and soon expanded the score to 6-0, and under the Rocket's ultra-high pressure offensive, Jackson Page hit a single shot of 147 points in the seventh game to counterattack. But O'Sullivan did not lose his rhythm, and soon won two games in a row with 66 points and 53, ending the first stage of the game 8-1.
In the second stage, O'Sullivan did not give Page another chance, and directly ended the battle with 2 consecutive whips, and advanced to the round of 16 with a big score of 10-1. It is worth mentioning that this is the fifth consecutive year that O'Sullivan has entered the second round of the World Championships after 2020. Among them, the Rockets defeated Kyren Wilson 18-8 in 2020 to win the World Championship for the sixth time, and in 2021, they lost to McGill 12-13 and stopped in the second round.
In 2022, O'Sullivan defeated Judd Trump, the No. 4 seed of the tournament, 18-13, to win the World Championship for the seventh time in his career, tying Stephen Hendry's World Championship winning record. At the same time, O'Sullivan also became the oldest World Championship champion at the age of 46 years, 4 months and 28 days. In 2023, O'Sullivan swept Iran's Hossein Vafi 13-2 and advanced to the quarterfinals of the World Snooker Championship for the 21st time in his career.
Currently, O'Sullivan holds 8 British Championships and 8 Masters titles. If he wins the title, he will complete the super feat of winning all three major championships with 8 crowns. Next, the Rockets will battle Ryan Day for a spot in the quarterfinals. If all goes well, he will meet Trump in the semifinals, while the other semi-final spot will most likely be between Allen and Murphy.
1/8 Finals:
David Gilbert vs Robert Milkins
Judd Trump vs Tom Forde
Jack Jones VS Si Jiahui
Stephen Maguire vs Shaun Murphy
Joe O'Connor vs Kyren Wilson
Jack Lisowski vs Stuart Bingham
Ryan Day vs O'Sullivan