RONNIE O’SULLIVAN won his third world title at the Crucible Theatre as he beat fellow Essex cueman Ali Carter 18-8 in Sheffield, England, on Monday.

    He regained the No. 1 position in the official world rankings to go with his 888.com World Snooker Championship title.

    O’Sullivan, 32, becomes the first player ever to hold the official No. 1 ranking on three separate occasions, having previously topped the list in 2002/03 and from 2004 to 2006.

    “It’s a real buzz to win it. There is no bigger tournament, this is our pinnacle, it’s our greatest stage. I’ve got three now and I would like to win more,” said O’Sullivan, whose previous world titles came in 2001 and 2004.

    Despite defeat, Carter is into the top eight for the first time in his career as he jumps seven places to No. 7.

    Further down the list, the biggest mover is China’s Liang Wenbo, who enjoyed a giant-killing run to the quarterfinals and rises from No. 66 to No. 40.

    O’Sullivan held an 11-5 overnight lead, which he stretched to 16-8 before wrapping up the last two frames in the evening session. O’Sullivan was never seriously tested in a low-key affair after his memorable performance against seven-time winner Stephen Hendry in the semifinal.

    O’Sullivan joined Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry and Mark Williams in winning the U.K. Championship and the world title in addition to clinching the No. 1 spot in the rankings in the same season.

    O’Sullivan has also topped the prize money list for the fifth season running in earning 638,350 pounds (US$1.26 million) from nine tournaments — including the 250,000 pound prize for winning the world title.

    The best ever tally in a season is Hendry’s 740,194 in 1994-95 but that came from 15 tournaments.

    To cap matters off O’Sullivan has become only the second player — after Hendry — to register 50 centuries in a season.

    O’Sullivan led 11-5 going into the second day of the final and no one has ever recovered from such a heavy overnight deficit in snooker’s most prestigious tournament.

    O’Sullivan went into the final session needing to win only two of the remaining 11 frames to secure the title after triumphing 5-3 in the afternoon.

    A break of 69 in frame 25 left Carter needing snookers and took O’Sullivan to the verge of the finishing line.

    And it was all over in the next after Carter missed a blue into the middle pocket and let in O’Sullivan to seal victory.(SD-Agencies)