Master at work: The thrill of Ronnie O'Sullivan - and the threat he faces

There’s a phrase coined by those who travel into space known as “the overview effect”; it describes the changed perspective which comes from seeing planet earth from afar – “hanging in the void”, according to those aboard the Apollo 8 mission in 1968. Essentially, those fortunate enough to experience such a thing report an overwhelming and enveloping clarity as to the beauty, unity and fragility of life, a blissful transcendence which changes their perspective forever.

Sadly, neither I – nor my mother – are astronauts, leaving me with three choices: use my imagination, take lots of ecstasy, or watch Ronnie O’Sullivan play snooker. My mother – who is not an astronaut – will be relieved to learn that I’m going to select the third of those options.

The sensation of enjoying O’Sullivan is a special one, not simply the vicarious thrill of something really difficult being done really well, but one that is primal and elemental. It’s easy to be glib and assert that, like Michael van Gerwen, Diego Maradona and not very many others, he was created solely and specifically to do what he does, but that is demeaning to men who are also fathers, friends, husbands and humans. Yet it still looks that way because their mastery is so easy and because it comes with an attitude to match, the upshot a revitalising, sustaining buzz that engages soul as well as brain.

And yet, over the last few years, O’Sullivan – or The Most Naturally Talented Player Ever To Pick Up A Cue as he is more commonly known, TMNTPETPUAC for short – has become fallible. Off the table this was always so, partly because he is a human being and partly because of the depression and addiction about which he has spoken so eloquently. Naturally, this sometimes manifested on the table, but if he was in nick, no one could get close – until the world final of 2014, more or less the first time that he was simply outplayed.

Of course, it was not quite as simple as that. O’Sullivan was dominant in the first two sessions, and though Mark Selby hung in there, under normal circumstances it would have made no difference; such behaviour is not sustainable over the best of 36 frames. But then, on day 2, Selby conjured a dazzling performance of precision safety play, taking the various openings it afforded him to turn a 10-5 deficit into an 18-14 romp. Rather than win his third title in a row and sixth overall, O’Sullivan had instead lost his first final, and though his best remains the best, things have never been quite the same.

Instead, Selby reclaimed the world No. 1 spot with the win and held it at the season’s end ever since. He has also added last year’s world title and, more recently, won last month’s UK Championship, beating O’Sullivan in the final. Never has he looked less pregnable.

And O’Sullivan doesn’t like playing him. Excellent though Ding Junhui, Shaun Murphy, Judd Trump and Neil Robertson are, they are essentially less good versions of O’Sullivan: potters and break-builders. And though they and the rest of the field have improved – every member of it has won at least one ranking title this season – if O’Sullivan plays well, he will beat them. But Selby – and John Higgins, for that matter – though still excellent in the balls, offer a different tactical challenge, so it is they of whom O’Sullivan will be most wary.

The question, then, is what O’Sullivan can do about it. Last year, he beat Mark Williams, Selby and Stuart Bingham before decimating Barry Hawkins in the final, 10-1, and the format of the competition, one he’s won six times, is certainly to his advantage – matches are short and all of them are difficult, leaving little room for boredom or complacency.

“If you’re not enjoying what you do, then it’s very easy to get distracted and start thinking about other stuff,” he told me last year. “But once you start to perform and get into a rhythm with it, you pick up momentum you quickly become … time doesn’t exist, you’re just going through a process.”

And that process has shown signs of returning in recent months. It is true that O’Sullivan has not won anything in a year, but he has been runner-up in two of his last three tournaments and against Selby in the UK Championship, produced some majestic snooker. The problem was that he was already trailing, and could afford neither mistakes nor so worthy an opponent.

As such, the key for him is to find that focus from the start. “If you can get your mind in the right place, it’s like warming up in the gym,” he said. “You go into the gym, you don’t just lift heavy waits and go into explosive moves, you limber up, stretch, and go ‘I’m ready, got a bit of a sweat on’, and kick on. It’s like building momentum like a snowball rolling down, eventually it gets bigger and stronger, and towards the end it’s like wooooow, get out the way of this!”

Whether it happens or whether it doesn’t, we’re in for a hell of week finding out.