Ronnie O’Sullivan is now officially snooker’s most successful player the game has ever seen after he eased his way to a sixth World Championship crown and a record breaking 37th ranking title.

The Rocket overtook Stephen Hendry’s record of winning 36 ranking titles when he completed a rousing 18-8 win over Kyren Wilson at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.

O’Sullivan now joins Hendry, Steve Davis and Ray Reardon to have won at least six world titles in snooker’s recent history.

After a fightback from Wilson last night O’Sullivan proved too hot for Wilson to handle – winning eight of the nine frames played on the tournament’s final day.

Ronnie O’Sullivan. Picture by Monique Limbos

O’Sullivan needed less than half an hour to complete the job this evening after going into the final session 17-8 to the good.

Wilson, who started the day 10-7 adrift of the world number 6, won the first frame of the afternoon but a missed pink denied him the chance to reduce his arrears to just a single frame.

From then on O’Sullivan dominated and took the remaining frames to make history.

Victory earned O’Sullivan £500,000 in prize money, as well as ranking points – moving him up to world number 2 in the world rankings.