Hendry or O'Sullivan - who is the greatest?

Hendry is arguably the most impressive and naturally talented given he didn't even have a snooker table till he was nearly 13 and without coaching taught himself the game to a ridiculously high standard.
 
Uncle_Marbles said:
Interesting stats below. Players who have achieved over 500 and above century breaks in major competitions
Apart from Hendry, they are mainly the newer stock of players. Steve Davis only managed 355.

Threshold Player Date threshold passed
1,200 Ronnie O'Sullivan (ENG) 22 April 2023
950 John Higgins (SCO) 11 Sep 2023
900 Judd Trump (ENG) 29 November 2023]
Neil Robertson (AUS) 1 September 2023
750 Stephen Hendry (SCO) [citation needed]
Mark Selby (ENG) January 2023
600 Ding Junhui (CHN) 13 November 2022
Shaun Murphy (ENG) 16 February 2023
Mark Williams (WAL) 21 September 2023
500 Stuart Bingham (ENG) 28 April 2021
Mark Allen (NIR) 12 August 2021
Marco Fu (HKG) 12 December 2019
Stephen Maguire (SCO) 9 November 2023
Click to expand...

They clearly have better technology these days that can hit the ball further and create more spin.
 
There are more top players in the current game which makes it harder to win tournaments.

Hendry era
Jimmy White
Steve Davis
Mark Williams
John Higgins
Ken Doherty
Doug Mountjoy
Cliff Thorburn
Peter Ebdon
Graeme Dott
Alan McManus
Mark Selby
Stuart Bingham
Shaun Murphy
Matthew Stevens
Terry Griffiths
John Parrott

Ronnie era
Jimmy White
Steve Davis
Mark Williams
John Higgins
Ken Doherty
Peter Ebdon
Matthew Stevens
John Parrott
Judd Trump
Mark Allen
Graeme Dott
Alan McManus
Mark Selby
Neil Robertson
Ding Junhui
Luca Brecel
Ali Carter
Shaun Murphy
Kyren Wilson
Barry Hawkins
Stuart Bingham
Paul Hunter
Zhao Xintong
Lian Wenbo


Apologies if I've missed a few off
 
Ronnie..went off the rails massively didn’t he?

Still was phenomenal when he was a total pish head.
 
sherlock1969 said:
If each at their best, O'Sullivan by a good distance.

However he is also the more likely to be off his game, or disinterested, or distracted or simply in a bad mood. I can't ever recall Hendry losing his cool or being anything less than laser-focused.

Therefore it would probably be a lot closer than many people might think.
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I agree. But that’s O’Sullivans shortcoming as a pro player. Concentration/professionalism.
I apply the same logic when people say…Mike Tyson would’ve ruled the world of boxing if he’d only not done drugs/drank/trained harder…someone else is in the gym doing the opposite.
Despite this, would still go for Ronnie.
Mind you, SH was a machine in his pomp. Easy to forget.
 
O'Sullivan by far the greatest snooker player there has ever been. Those currently playing aren't pushing him as they should be. He was far from his best at this Masters but the others just fell away, e.g. Trump, Selby, Allen, etc.
 
Longevity it’s Ronnie no question but both at their peak I think Hendry if you look at the head to heads in the 2000s there were some fabulous matches (shared) arguably Ronnie was at his peak but Hendry was already regressing by then
 
Alex Higgins got me watching the game in the late 70s. Jimmy White carried it on. O'sullivan to some degree has carried on their mantle of flawed geniuses but I've never taken to him in the same way.
 
Doom_On_Horseback said:
Not sure it’s farcical?
Both won 7 world championships.
Id go Ronnie too but SH had some qualities that Ronnie doesn’t.
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Sorry but I think it's a ridiculous debate.

Stephen Hendry was amazing and he is rightly lauded as one of the greats and one of the best ever. His 7 World wins says everything, but he isn't remotely close to Ronnie.

Ronnie has done things on a snooker table that no one else could even dream of.

Plus his longevity in the game is unmatched. He's setting records that will very likely go untouched or come close to breaking.

Ronnie is the greatest snooker player ever and the greatest to ever pick up a cue. That's no disrespect to Hendry, because he was amazing, but even himself says Ronnie is the greatest.
 
Isn't it daft comparing snooker players from different eras? I mean we don't compare Messi to Stanley Matthews. If you recall the snooker tables in the 1980s were muddy and heavy and most of the time the players had to hit the ball harder to get the momentum to get it across the table before it stuck in the mud. Also the cues in the 80s were made of galvanised rubber and weighed a ton whereas the cues these days are light as a feather.
 
Hendry was relentless for a much shorter period but he was pretty much untouchable in that time. His mental strength was astounding. However, the longevity of Ronnie is remarkable, the fact he is still winning tournaments regularly and still playing some of the best snooker is just incredible.

Ronnie take this one
 
It's Steve Davis realistically. The only professional snooker player to play Glastonbury. FACT.
 
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