Ronnie O’Sullivan has claimed a record-breaking seventh World Snooker Championship title after beating Judd Trump at the Crucible.
O’Sullivan, 46, matched Stephen Hendry’s modern record with his 18-13 win on Monday.
He also became the oldest world snooker champion in history, surpassing Ray Reardon, who won his last title in 1978 aged 45.
Taking home a £500,000 winner’s cheque, O’Sullivan hugged Trump after getting over the line with a break of 83 before greeting his children who ran into the arena to celebrate.
His path to victory was far from smooth, after he appeared irritated and clashed with the referee, Olivier Martel, during the opening session on Sunday.
In the eighth frame, O’Sullivan received a formal warning from Mr Martel for displaying a lewd gesture.
The champion denied the allegation, doubling down on his affront in a later TV interview.
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The incident marred recognition of a ruthless first day performance by O’Sullivan, who punished a series of misses by Trump to win a streak of seven frames out of nine.
Trump won the first three frames of the day, taking the score to 13-9.
O’Sullivan went on to take the first two frames in the evening with breaks of 82 and 88, each time building on errors made by the 33-year-old.
Trump won two of the next three and made another bit of history by delivering a record-breaking 109th century of the tournament.
He managed to close the gap to 17-13 before O’Sullivan got over the line.
After the game, Trump paid a “massive congratulations” to his competitor and said it had “been a pleasure to share the table with him”.
“He’s always been so good to me throughout my career, letting me practice with him when I was young, and try to learn things off him,” he said.
“An amazing achievement and he will go down as the best player of all time.”
