In a Channel 4 cookery show aired before a cueball was struck in Barnsley this week TV presenter Tim Lovejoy asked Ronnie O’Sullivan if he was going to win the English Open.

O’Sullivan cheekily replied “probably”. It turned out he was spot on.

Seven days after his appearance on “Sunday Brunch”, the five-times world champion stormed his way to lifting the Steve Davis Trophy beating Kyren Wilson 9-2.

After dominating the opening session earlier today, O’Sullivan needed less than an hour to complete the job and claim his 29th career ranking title and the £70,000 cash jackpot.

To be truthful it didn’t which matter which player O’Sullivan was facing, he was simply too good and played snooker out of this world.

Ironically, his victory meant he overtook the snooker legend who the English Open trophy is named after – Steve Davis – in the number of ranking titles won. He is now just seven behind leader and seven-times world champion Stephen Hendry.

He is also now the only player who can attempt to win snooker’s biggest cash prize in history – £1million – if he wins the remaining three Home Nations tournaments this season – Northern Ireland Open, Scottish Open and Welsh Open.

In this form he will certainly stand a chance.

Ronnie O’Sullivan’s Route to English Open Glory

R1 beat Zhang Anda 4-1

R2 beat Mark Davis 4-1

R3 beat Zhang Yong 4-1

R4 beat John Higgins 4-3

QF beat Jack Lisowski 5-2

SF beat Anthony McGill 6-4

Final beat Kyren Wilson 9-2

It’s O’Sullivan’s first ranking title since winning the Welsh Open in February 2016.

Trailing 6-2 it was vital Wilson, playing in his second major ranking final of the season following his run in the recent World Open, made a good start to the evening session.

And a brilliant long red showed he was up for the fight but he then later missed a long red leading 32-14 which paved the way for O’Sullivan to make an excellent clearance of 50 which increased his lead to 7-2.

It was a majestic clearance with the highlight being a superb canon shot to get on the final red which after contact with the cueball placed it right in the heart of the middle pocket. Commentator Neal Foulds said it was the “most delightful” shot a snooker fan would wish to see.

And O’Sullivan continued showing the world his incredible talent as he wrapped up the match in style knocking in stunning breaks of 127 and then 132.

He is now just six century breaks away from making the 900 mark.

O’Sullivan will hope to continue his fine form when he returns to major ranking event snooker from next Sunday (October 29) when the International Championship is held in Daqing, China.