Ronnie O'Sullivan nets £147k bonus with TWO maximum breaks in same match

Daily Mirror

a day ago

Ronnie O'Sullivan took on Chris Wakelin in the semi-finals of the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters in Jeddah and lit up the match with a pair of maximum breaks en route to the final
Ronnie O'Sullivan rolled back the years with a thrilling 147 break at the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters to cost rival Thepchaiya Un-Nooh a tidy sum in bonuses. Not content with that, though, he added a second maximum in the very same match.
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The tournament awards a £50,000 prize for a maximum break. Thailand's Uh-Nooh had been due to scoop the lot before The Rocket intervened, but O'Sullivan is now on track for two thirds of the prize.
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It doesn't end there, though. After doubling up during his victory over Chris Wakelin in Jeddah, O'Sullivan secured himself an additional £147,000 bonus to take his total pay packet up above £180,000.
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"You say the name and he is snooker," Steven Hallworth said during TNT Sports' coverage of the tournament. "This is why we love him. What a player.
O'Sullivan ended up beating Wakelin 6-3 to book his place in the final. His opponent their will be Neil Robertson, who earned a 6-3 victory of his own against Elliot Slessor.
It was the first time O'Sullivan scored a competitive 147 since 2018, when he did so at the English Open. He set a new record as the oldest player to hit a maximum when he did so early on against Wakelin... and then broke his own record by a few minutes.
The £147,000 bonus is a new addition for the 2025-26 season, with players scooping the sum if they make two maximums across the 2025 UK Championship, the 2026 Masters and the 2026 World Snooker Championship. However, O'Sullivan needed just one tournament to claim the prize.
Previously, he has queried small prizes being handed out for maximum breaks. That clearly wasn't a concern in Saudi Arabia, with a six-figure sum coming his way after he got that second 147 in the bag.
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"I knew it was £10,000. I could have done it, but I didn't think the prize was worthy of a 147. So I've tried to let it build up until it's worthy and then go for it," O'Sullivan said back in 2016 after learning he could only net £12,000 for hitting 147 at the Welsh Open.
"It's like going into a Mercedes garage and when they say that you can have the car for £3,000, you reply, 'No way, that's too cheap. I'm not buying it for that'."
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O'Sullivan and Robertson will both have a chance to add to their financial rewards on Saturday. The winner of the final will land a huge £500,000 payout, with £200,000 going to the runner-up.
"To get to the final is huge in terms of ranking points, it means I should be in all of the big events later in the season which makes my scheduling so much easier.
"I took that for granted a few years ago when I was always in the top four. The standard is so high now that I have realised you have to keep your foot down all the time. A lot of hard work has happened to get these kind of results."