Sean O'Sullivan (born 29 April 1994) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

professional

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...

player.

Career

O'Sullivan turned professional in 2012 after qualifying via Event 2 of the Q School and gained a two-year tour card for the

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

and 2013–14 snooker seasons. In the event, he beat

Christopher Keogan Christopher Keogan (born 26 August 1992) is an English former professional snooker player. Career From the town of Doncaster, Yorkshire in England, Keogan started playing snooker at the age of 6. In his early years he was coached by Steve Pres ...

4–1,

Nick Dyson Nick Dyson (born 19 December 1969 in Hessle, Hull) is an English former professional snooker player. He competed on the main tour over sixteen seasons between 1989 and 2006. Career Born in 1969, Dyson turned professional in 1989. In his firs ...

4–0, Mohammed Al Shaikh from

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

4–1 and

Michael Wild Michael Wild (born 27 March 1981) is an English former professional snooker player. Career During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Wild competed in the Challenge Tour and International Open Series events, without much success until the 2002/200 ...

4–3, before seeing off Ryan Causton 4–1 in the quarter-finals.

Debut season

O'Sullivan lost his first nine matches as a professional, picking up his first victory in the minor-ranking European Tour Event 3 by beating David Gilbert 4–3, before losing 4–2 to Jimmy Robertson. The tournament formed part of the

Players Tour Championship The Players Tour Championship was a series of snooker tournaments comprising some minor-ranking events played in Europe, and an Asian leg comprising some minor-ranking events in Asia. The series concluded with a Grand Final, where qualification ...

events, with O'Sullivan playing in all ten tournaments, finishing 98th on the Order of Merit. His best run of results came in qualifying for the China Open, where he defeated

Craig Steadman Craig Steadman (born 14 July 1982) is an English professional snooker player. Career Early career Steadman began his professional career by playing Challenge Tour in 2001, at the time the second-level professional tour. He reached the quarte ...

and

Alfie Burden Alfred Burden (born 14 December 1976) is an English professional snooker player from London. Career Burden originally had his eyes set on making a career as a professional footballer, but a badly broken leg curtailed this ambition. He spent a ...

, but then lost 5–3 to Rory McLeod. O'Sullivan's season ended when he was beaten 10–6 by

Michael Wasley Michael Wasley (born 23 February 1990) is an English former professional snooker player. Wasley turned professional in 2012 after qualifying via Event 3 of Q School and gained a two-year tour card for the 2012–13 and 2013–14 snooker sea ...

in the first round of World Championship Qualifying. He finished his first year on tour ranked world number 91.

2013/2014 season

O'Sullivan's only win at the venue stage of a ranking event during the 2013–14 season came at the

UK Championship The UK Championship is a professional ranking snooker tournament. It is one of snooker's prestigious Triple Crown events, along with the World Championship and the Masters. It is usually held at the Barbican Centre, York. Ronnie O'Sullivan h ...

when he defeated Anthony Hamilton 6–4, before losing by a reverse of this scoreline to

Noppon Saengkham Noppon Saengkham (; born 15 July 1992) is a Thai professional snooker player. Career Early years In April 2009, Saengkham lost in the final of the ACBS Asian Under-21 Snooker Championship 1–5 to Zhang Anda. He went one better at the 2009 IBSF ...

in the second round. He dropped off the tour at the end of the season as he was ranked world number 102, well outside of the top 64 who retain their places. O'Sullivan entered Q School in a bid to win his place back, but lost in the last 32 in both events.

2014/2015 season

At the Riga Open in August 2014, O'Sullivan reached his first quarter-final in a professional event with wins over

Jamie Burnett Jamie Burnett (born 16 September 1975) is a Scottish former professional snooker player from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire. A journeyman, Burnett was ranked within the world's top 64 players for 20 consecutive years between 1996 and 2016, reachin ...

Mark Joyce Mark Joyce (born 11 August 1983) is an English professional snooker player who lives in Walsall. He began his professional career by playing Challenge Tour in 2003. Joyce enjoyed an outstanding amateur career, winning the European Under-19 Cham ...

Jak Jones Jak Jones (born 29 July 1993) is a Welsh professional snooker player. Jones was born in Cwmbran, Wales. He became a professional in 2010 at the age of 16, by winning the 2010 European Under 19 Snooker Championship in Malta. Career Professio ...

and

Mark Davis Mark Davis may refer to: Entertainers *Mark Davis (talk show host), American radio talk show host * Mark Jonathan Davis (born 1965), American actor/singer and creator of Richard Cheese *Mark Davis, American bassist and founding member for the band ...

, before he was beaten 4–0 by

Mark Allen Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * Finn ...

. He also played in all three of the Asian Tour events and, thanks to a last 16 showing in the Xuzhou Open, he finished 22nd on the Asian Order of Merit which has earned him a new two-year main snooker tour card for the 2015–16 and 2016–17 seasons.

2015/2016 season

O'Sullivan dropped just two frames in reaching the last 16 of the

Paul Hunter Classic The Paul Hunter Classic is a non-ranking snooker tournament. It changed from a ranking event to a 16-man invitational event in 2019. From 2010 to 2015 it was part of the Players Tour Championship. Barry Hawkins is the reigning champion. After los ...

where he lost 4–0 to Michael Holt. He would ultimately finish 38th on the

European Order of Merit The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fift ...

. In the main ranking events he qualified for the

International Championship The International Championship is a professional ranking snooker tournament. The reigning champion is Judd Trump. History The event was introduced in the 2012/2013 season. It was named as the "first overseas 'major'", because the tournament ha ...

courtesy of a 6–3 win over

Robin Hull Robin Hull (born 16 August 1974) is a Finnish former professional snooker player. For some time, he was the sole Nordic countries, Nordic player on the game's Snooker world rankings, main tour. He is known as a solid -builder, having compiled ov ...

, but lost 6–0 to

Anthony McGill Anthony McGill (born 5 February 1991) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He is a practice partner of retired snooker player Alan McManus. McGill turned professional in 2010, after finishing fourth in the 2009/2010 PIOS rankings. He wo ...

in the first round. O'Sullivan made five breaks of 50 or above to eliminate

Kurt Maflin Kurt Graham Maflin (born 8 August 1983) is an English-Norwegian former professional snooker player. A strong break-builder, Maflin has compiled more than 200 century breaks during his career and has made two 147 breaks in professional competitio ...

6–3 in the first round of the

, before being defeated 6–4 by

Matthew Selt Matthew Selt (born 7 March 1985) is an English professional snooker player originally from Romford, east London and now living in Chelmsford, Essex. He qualified for the professional tour by finishing seventh on the Pontin's International Open ...

. He could only win one more match after this and lost 10–5 to

Ross Muir Ross Muir (born 6 October 1995 in Edinburgh) is a Scottish former professional snooker player. He regularly wears a glove on his bridge hand. Muir turned professional in 2013 after graduating from event two of the Q School, defeating David Mor ...

in the first round of

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

qualifying.

2016/2017 season

A 4–1 win over

Yu Delu Yu Delu (; born 11 October 1987) is a former professional snooker player from the People's Republic of China. He is currently serving a 10 years and 9 months ban for match-fixing from 25 May 2018 until 24 February 2029. The ban was announced on ...

qualified O'Sullivan for the

2016 Riga Masters The 2016 Kaspersky Riga Masters was a professional ranking snooker tournament that took place between 22–24 June 2016 at the Arena Riga in Riga, Latvia. It was the first ranking event of the 2016/2017 season. This was the first time for whi ...

and he beat

Luca Brecel Luca Brecel (born 8 March 1995) is a Belgian professional snooker player. He won the European Under-19 title at the age of 14 and went on to break Stephen Hendry's record as the youngest player ever to compete at the Crucible Theatre. He made hi ...

4–0, before being unable to pick up a frame himself in the second round against David Gilbert. After losing eight of his next nine matches he knocked out

Robbie Williams Robert Peter Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer and songwriter. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, and achieved commercial success after launching a solo career in 1996. His debut stud ...

, Mark King and

Mitchell Mann Mitchell Mann (born 26 December 1991) is an English professional snooker player. Career Junior Mann first played snooker aged 9, after being forced to quit football after a diagnosis of Legg–Calvé–Perthes syndrome, a rare disease which r ...

at the Scottish Open all by 4–1 scorelines to reach the last 16 of a ranking event for the first time. O'Sullivan led Yu 3–2, but lost 4–3. O'Sullivan entered Q School at the end of the season in order to attempt to remain on the tour. He lost 4–0 to Allan Taylor in the final round of the first event and 4–3 to

Paul Davison Paul S. Davison (born 1 October 1971) is an English former professional snooker player from Pickering, North Yorkshire. First earning a place on the World Snooker Tour in 1992, he played on the tour until 1997, and has since regained his place o ...

in the fourth round of the second, but had done enough to earn a new tour card through the Q School Order of Merit.

Performance and rankings timeline

Career finals

Amateur finals: 1 (1 title)

References

External links

* *
Sean O'Sullivan
at ''worldsnooker.com'' {{DEFAULTSORT:OSullivan, Sean 1994 births Living people English snooker players People from Whitechapel