Was Neil Robertson's £500,000 title win in Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters final against Ronnie O'Sullivan greater than his World Championship triumph?
Updated 17/08/2025 at 17:37 GMT+1
Neil Robertson managed to hold off a resurgent snooker GOAT Ronnie O'Sullivan to complete an epic 10-9 win in the final of the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters. Having led 7-2 and then trailed 9-8 on Saturday, Robertson produced a nerveless 101 and 87 to claim the £500,000 first prize. "I think it probably surpasses the World Championship," he said. But was Australia's 2010 Crucible winner correct?
Emotional Robertson says Saudi Arabia Masters win 'surpasses' world championship
Video credit: TNT Sports
It is easy to get swept away by the emotion of momentous events in life, good or bad, especially involving hatches, matches and dispatches.
By extension, epic sporting triumphs offer giddy elation or brutal despair, by their very nature tending to lead to a sense of hyperbole, a distorted sense of an ending, that overstates or even undersells the importance of what just happened.
Nobody dies more times over and over again, or enjoys more glorious rebirths, across the lifespan of their respective careers than a sportsperson.
On occasion, there is even an element of grounded reality in the reaction.
When "The Gentleman" Joe Perry - who retired as a snooker player in April to begin work as a coach and mentor of his close friend Neil Robertson - lifted the Welsh Open in March 2022 with a 9-5 win over Judd Trump, his comments were perfectly understandable.
"This is the absolute highlight of my career, by a country mile," he said, flanked by his parents in Newport.
"I thought it was coming to an end, but now I've had the best moment of my snooker career. To do it against a great champion like Trump is the icing on the cake."
/origin-imgresizer.tntsports.io/2025/08/17/image-7fce7430-0b69-4fdd-b7ea-62b24430b311-85-2560-1440.jpeg)
Joe Perry and Neil Robertson with the trophy in Saudi Arabia.
Image credit: Getty Images
Perry was aged 47 and ranked 42nd in the world when he upset the odds to secure only the second ranking event of his career since turning professional in 1992.
It was easily his biggest tournament success, but coming in the death throes of a proficient rather than prolific career that also contained a Masters final defeat to Ronnie O'Sullivan in 2017, you could appreciate his sentiment, such was the rarity of being left as the last man standing.
O'Sullivan arrived on the scene in the same year as Perry, but has faced no similar issues in adorning his life and times with trophies, tributes and tales to write home about.
As the journalist Dave Hendon pointed out in commentary on TNT Sports during the second staging of the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters, O'Sullivan is 49, but has already published three autobiographies, with more chapters surely to be written and more gold to be mined.
He could pen one solely about the goings-on in Jeddah over the past week that saw him produce arguably the greatest performance of his 33-year professional career in a 6-3 win over Chris Wakelin in a semi-final which harvested two 147s, 142, 134, 70 and a 67.
It was described by Ken Doherty, the 1997 world champion, as the greatest exhibition of all time in a best-of-11 frame match.
"Snooker from the Gods" is perhaps underselling it as O'Sullivan, armed with a new cue constructed by fellow professional Sunny Akani, a bit like Paul Newman with his Balabushka in classic pool movie The Color of Money, set about putting on a cue ball clinic.
It demonstrated why his heavenly talents are beyond mere mortals pursuing a similar path.
/origin-imgresizer.tntsports.io/2025/08/16/image-fb59bb25-3393-4904-832b-bcfb9cc86c93-85-2560-1440.jpeg)
Robertson holds nerve to make 'biggest shot of tournament' and claim Saudi Arabia Masters title
Video credit: TNT Sports
In such a respect, you can understand why Robertson described his 10-9 victory over O'Sullivan in the final of the monied £2.3 million Saudi event on Saturday night as the highlight of his career, more significant than his solitary world title success in 2010, coming against the greatest player in history.
Even if plenty of the public will wonder if such a claim stands up to scrutiny amid the backdrop of Jeddah's shifting sands.
After all the chaos of his iconic double maximum on Friday evening, the first time it was achieved in a single session of snooker, it was perhaps understandable why O'Sullivan made a sluggish start to the final as he cut an oddly subdued figure in falling 6-2 behind.
It would ultimately cost him a record-extending 42nd ranking triumph despite a rousing recovery that saw him roar back from 7-2 down to lead 9-8 with breaks of 139, 97, 89, 57, 80 and 64 illustrating his resistance and commitment to the cause.
In the final analysis, he was extremely unfortunate not to see out the win with an element of luck deserting him in the key moments as he attacked the pack twice in the final two frames when poised for victory, only to see the reds refuse to budge.
The run of the ball is key in snooker, and while O'Sullivan was left to ponder what might have been, Robertson steeled himself superbly on the brink of defeat to recover his composure in compiling match-winning breaks of 101 and 87, earning the largest cheque of his career.
Having won the match on the final colours, he finished the night only 37 points ahead of his opponent over 19 frames.
Fine, fine margins with O'Sullivan losing a fifth ranking final in the deciding frame since 2008. But he hardly succumbed to a novice here.
Robertson is Australia's greatest snooker player of all time despite not perhaps being as famous as "Steady Eddie" Charlton from the 1970s and 1980s.
He is a terrific character and a worthy raconteur, without any airs and graces, who has made his own running in life to become a self-made man the hard way, doing the hard yards as much as Shane Warne, Ian Thorpe, Pat Rafter or any other modern day sporting great from Down Under.
He is a straight talker, who once told this onlooker about his ordeal in having to head back to his home city of Melbourne in 2003 to join a dole queue without any qualifications, having failed three times to make it as a snooker player in the UK, and without a pot to pot in.
Apart from his technically superior ability to sink snooker balls that has subsequently delivered 26 ranking titles, 993 centuries and career earnings of £7.8m at the age of 43.
"I was in the queue at the job centre. I had no other option. I didn’t have any qualifications having left school at 15," he said.
"I didn’t really want to do anything, and didn’t know what I was going to do. I remember being in there, and there was this guy kicking off at the counter because they weren’t going to pay him.
"I don’t know what the system is over here, but you have to do 10 job interviews over two weeks. He was kicking off, swearing, saying f*** this, f*** that. I was like: "Oh my God, is this my life ahead?"
- Saudi Arabia Masters final triumph over O'Sullivan 'surpasses' world title - Robertson
- 'I have never played that well' - Oasis in desert as O'Sullivan treats Saudi to his greatest hits
- Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters 2025: Scores, results and schedule
/origin-imgresizer.tntsports.io/2025/08/16/image-6d2c399c-55f3-4ca1-be68-a6300ff6f730-85-2560-1440.jpeg)
Robertson celebrates with Saudi Arabia Masters trophy after winning £500,000 jackpot
Video credit: TNT Sports
It was his desire to succeed on the old green baize that saw him recover after dropping out of the world's top 16 and failing to qualify for the final stages of the World Championship for the first time in two decades in April 2024, when he lost 10-9 in qualifying to Jamie Jones.
Despite winning the English Open with a 9-7 win over Wu Yize last September, his first tournament success in two years, he was 17th in the world in January and required O'Sullivan's decision to withdraw from the Masters in January to gain a spot at Alexandra Palace, in an event he has won twice before in 2012 and 2022.
The former world No. 1 lost 6-2 to Shaun Murphy in the last eight with Murphy progressing to claim the elite crown, but the signs were positive for Robertson.
He was clearly trending upwards, with a record 10-0 whitewash of Stuart Bingham in the final of the World Grand Prix in Hong Kong in March also worth a whopping £180,000.
This came after he earned a £150,000 bonus from his success in the Home Nations Series.
His win over O'Sullivan added a huge £500,000 and sees him end his week in Jeddah as world No. 3 following victories over Ben Woollaston (5-2), Mark Selby (6-4), Ali Carter (6-4) and Elliot Slessor (6-3), before that dramatic win over O'Sullivan.
He has collected £991,800 on the table in the first eight months of 2025.
"I think it probably surpasses the World Championship in my opinion, because I have had to answer a lot of questions. Can I beat someone like Ronnie in a final of this magnitude?" he told TNT Sports.
"We have played in many finals before and I have won a few, he has probably won more than me, but to beat him here with so much on the line is definitely my best win"
It was a poignant victory, but it is probably difficult to swallow the suggestion that any tournament win, even one worth half a million, can be bigger than conquering the world.
The Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters mimics the UK Championship and Masters over course and distance and suddenly the prestige of huge financial incentives.
Which means any member of the top 16 in the world is required to win 34 frames to succeed in the self-styled snooker majors.
But securing the World Championship remains a whole different ball game.
/origin-imgresizer.tntsports.io/2025/08/15/image-4801505a-b0de-45f1-8ed3-8aaeb8e4e8dc-85-2560-1440.jpeg)
O'Sullivan begins semi-final with incredible 147 at Saudi Arabia Masters
Video credit: TNT Sports
When Robertson became Australia's first world champion of the modern era 15 years ago, he did so by winning 71 frames with victories over Fergal O'Brien (10-5), Martin Gould (13-12), Steve Davis (13-5), Ali Carter (17-12) and Graeme Dott (18-13) justifying his lofty position in the sport.
It is also hardly fanciful to suggest O'Sullivan would have won the final in Jeddah if it had gone on longer than the allotted 19 frames, such was the head of steam he was building.
Which is why the World Championship is so difficult to conquer. Although, you do at least have time to recover in longer formats.
O'Sullivan has won the world crown seven times since 2001, to match Stephen Hendry's record haul from the 1990s.
Like the great Scot, he remains with considerably more scars than success from the ultimate event over decades of trying.
It remains the acid test in snooker, above any of the great pretenders in cue ball circles.
Robertson's struggles in adapting to the conditions at the Crucible - he has only reached the semi-finals once since 2010 - would perhaps also explain why he rates success away from Sheffield of higher value as elation trumps enmity.
But Robertson is entitled to choose his personal preferences after displaying plenty of Aussie grit in return of the Jeddah.
Perhaps his point of view will alter if he can become only the 10th multiple world champion of the modern era. Yet that is for another day.
Meanwhile, it is difficult not to suggest the main story from the week was as much about the wonderfully enlivening play of O'Sullivan, who shows no signs of creaking in his 50th year.
After the travails of last season, and smashing his old cue into pieces in January, the Dubai-based Essex man is suddenly relocated and rejuvenated in the Middle East.
Armed with a new cue, and one suspects fresh targets, a sporting rebirth of sorts probably also took place in Jeddah.
Top 16 in world rankings after Saudi Arabia Masters
- 1. Judd Trump (Eng) £1,978,200
- 2. Kyren Wilson (Eng) £1,348,300
- 3. Neil Robertson (Aus) £1,047,050
- 4. Ronnie O’Sullivan (Eng) £940,000
- 5. Mark Williams (Wal) £885,600
- 6. John Higgins (Sco) £781,250
- 7. Ding Junhui (Chn) £636,000
- 8. Barry Hawkins (Eng) £590,050
- 9. Mark Selby (Eng) £588,000
- 10. Zhao Xintong (Chn) £540,000
- 11. Mark Allen (NI) £522,900
- 12. Zhang Anda (Chn) £496,550
- 13. Chris Wakelin (Eng) £481,400
- 14. Xiao Guodong (Chn) £461,000
- 15. Si Jiahui (Chn) £446,200
- 16. Shaun Murphy (Eng) £432,900
- - -
Watch and stream top snooker action, including the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters, live and on demand on TNT Sports and discovery+
Related Topics
Thoughts?
Advertisement
Advertisement