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The 2016/2017 Ronnie O'Sullivan snooker season began with the Hong Kong Masters in July 2017. His opening match was against John Higgins on 21 July. The season saw O'Sullivan win five world ranking tournaments, including his 6th UK Championship title, make his 900th career total century break and his 14th career total maximum break. His season ended on 28 April 2018 after falling to Ali Carter 9–13 in the second round of the World Championship.

Season overview
After reaching the final of the non-ranking invitational Hong Kong Masters, O'Sullivan found an extended period of form where he won the English Open, the Shanghai Masters and the UK Championship in the space of seven weeks. His UK Championship triumph equalled Steve Davis' record of 6 titles and Stephen Hendry's record of 18 major titles. He also was runner-up at the non-ranking Champion of Champions, reaching the final for the fourth time in five years.

In the new year, O'Sullivan lost at the Masters for the first time since 2015. He then rebounded by winning the "Ladbrokes double": the World Grand Prix and the Players Championship to capture a joint record five world ranking titles in a single season. At the China Open, O'Sullivan made his 14th career maximum break.

O'Sullivan ended the season ranked no. 2 on the world ranking list. For the 2017/2018 season, O'Sullivan had a 84% winning percentage (to the nearest percent) and earned £852,000 from overall prize money.

China Championship qualifying
In the China Championship qualifying, O'Sullivan was due to play against Zhang Yong. However, Zhang withdrew, giving O'Sullivan a walk-over.

Hong Kong Masters
O'Sullivan was one of eight "elite" players invited to play in the inaugural Hong Kong Masters. O'Sullivan reached the final, having narrowly beaten John Higgins by 5–4 in the quarter-finals and Judd Trump by 6–5 in the semi-finals, despite needing a snooker in the deciding frame of his match with Trump. In the final, O'Sullivan faced Neil Robertson and was defeated 3–6, despite scoring the highest break of the tournament with a run of 143 in the fifth frame.

CVB Snooker Challenge
As part of the British quintet of himself, Mark Williams, Graeme Dott, Joe Perry and Michael Holt; O'Sullivan captained Great Britain to victory in the CVB Snooker Challenge team event, beating China 26–9 by aggregate score. During the event O'Sullivan defeated opposing team captain Ding Junhui 6–1, Zhou Yuelong 3–0, and teamed up with Williams to defeat Ding and Liang Wenbo 4–3 in doubles (compiling a century break of 131 together).

China Championship
At the China Championship, O'Sullivan reached the quarter-finals with victories over Sam Baird 5–2 and David Gilbert 5–3 before recording a 5–0 whitewash of Graeme Dott in the last 16. He lost to the eventual champion Luca Brecel 4–5 succumbing to a succession of four breaks over 50 (including two centuries) by Brecel after leading 4–1.

International Championship qualifying
O'Sullivan qualified for the International Championship by whitewashing Gerard Greene 6–0.

Shanghai Masters qualifying
In the Shanghai Masters qualiyfing, O'Sullivan dominated Christopher Keogan, winning by 5–0 to book his place at the venue in Shanghai.

English Open
O'Sullivan next competed in the first of the four Home Nations events of the season, the English Open. In the first round, O'Sullivan defeated Zhang Anda 4–1. He won despite injuring his ankle prior to the match, and was forced to play in trainers in violation of the player's dress code. World Snooker later gave O'Sullivan permission to wear trainers for the rest of the Open. In the second round, O'Sullivan beat Mark Davis 4–1, compiling back-to-back century breaks of 136 and 134 in the last two frames of the match. In the third round, he continued his good form by compiling an additional three century breaks on the way to winning 4–1 against Zhang Yong. The match was interrupted at the end of the final frame by a female spectator running around the table. Despite the distraction, O'Sullivan continued playing and potted the pink ball for a break of 129 before he offered his cue to the spectator so she could take his last shot before being led away by security.

In his last 16 match, O'Sullivan trailed John Higgins 0–1, 1–2, and 2–3 before triumphing in the decider 4–3. O'Sullivan then raced into the final by beating Jack Lisowski 5–2 in the quarter-finals, and Anthony McGill 6–4 in the semi-finals. In the final, O'Sullivan defeated Kyren Wilson 9–2 for his 29th ranking title. During the final match he compiled four centuries and had a pot success of 98%, missing only a total of 6 balls during the 11 frames played. Altogether, O'Sullivan compiled 12 centuries during the tournament, more than any other competitor. This was O'Sullivan's first victory in a ranking event in more than 20 months.

International Championship
O'Sullivan lost in the first round of the International Championship to 17-year-old Yan Bingtao 1–6. After the match, O'Sullivan compared Yan's standard of play in the match to that of Stephen Hendry or John Higgins and predicted he would go on to become a tournament winner in future.

Champion of Champions
As the winner of the 2017 Masters and 2017 English Open, O'Sullivan qualified for the Champion of Champions. O'Sullivan won his group by defeating Neil Robertson 4–1 in the group semi-final before whitewashing John Higgins 6–0 in the group final (making the tournament high break of 138 in the final frame). In the semi-finals, O'Sullivan recorded his 900th competitive century on the way to a 6–2 defeat of Anthony Hamilton to reach the final where he faced Shaun Murphy. In the final, O'Sullivan came to the brink of defeat trailing 5–9 before mounting a comeback by winning three consecutive frames. In frame 18, O'Sullivan when clearing the colours, needed just the green ball to leave Murphy requiring a snooker and to force a decider. However, O'Sullivan missed it (banging his cue on the table in frustration) which allowed Murphy to clear from green to black and take the trophy 8–10.

Shanghai Masters
Straight off the back of the loss to Murphy in the Champion of Champions final, O'Sullivan traveled to China for the Shanghai Masters which started the day after the Champion of Champions final. Playing his first two early round matches in the same day, O'Sullivan showed "little signs of jet-lag" and defeated Gary Wilson 5–2 and Joe Perry 5–1, making the tournament's highest break of 144 in his match with Wilson. O'Sullivan then proceeded to reach the final after a last 16 whitewash of Barry Hawkins and a quarter-final final victory over Mark Williams, 5–0 and 5–1 respectively (again during the same day), and then defeating John Higgins in the semi-finals 6–2. This marked the fourth consecutive time O'Sullivan had beaten old rival Higgins this season. In the final, facing Judd Trump, O'Sullivan raced into a 7–0 lead which he never relinquished. O'Sullivan eventually won 10–3, claiming his 30th ranking title and afterwards called it "one of the best victories of my career". O'Sullivan acknowledged that his standard of play wasn't as good as what he had produced at the English Open, but he rather credited his accomplishment to his improved mentality.

Northern Ireland Open
Heading into the Northern Ireland Open, having won the English Open, there was speculation whether O'Sullivan could win all four Home Nations series tournaments, and receive the £1 million bonus jackpot. In the early rounds, O'Sullivan defeated Lukas Kleckers in the first 4–2, Duane Jones in the second 4–0, before losing to Elliot Slessor in the third 1–4. After his third round defeat, O'Sullivan said of the bonus jackpot that he was “so happy the chance of the £1 million is gone, all the silly headlines, it was ridiculous." and that he "went along with it, but you have more chance of winning the lottery."

UK Championship
O'Sullivan defeated 16-year-old Welsh amateur Jackson Page 6–3 in the first round of the UK Championship, after his scheduled professional opponent Rhys Clark withdrew and Page replaced him in the draw. O'Sullivan went on to score two comfortable 6–1 victories over Michael Georgiou and Michael White in the second and third rounds respectively. O'Sullivan's third round match coincided with his 42nd birthday. O'Sullivan survived a "big scare" against Sunny Akani in the last 16. In frame 10, Akani led 4–5 and just needed to clear the remaining colours to win the match. As he potted the green ball, he attempted to cannon into and dislodge the blue ball from the cushion. However, the blue ball rolled into a pocket, allowing O'Sullivan to instead clear the colours and force a decider. O'Sullivan then won the last frame and therefore the match 6–5. Afterwards, O'Sullivan admitted that he felt like he "robbed" Akani of victory.

In both the quarter-final and semi-final matches, O'Sullivan held off comebacks after powering to early leads. Against Martin Gould in the quarter-finals, O'Sullivan led 5–0 before triumphing 6–3 and against Stephen Maguire in the semi-finals, he led 4–0 before edging through 6–4. In a rematch of the Champion of Champions final, O'Sullivan faced Shaun Murphy in the title match. The final was speculated as a "grudge match", due to the prior documented animosity between the pair and Murphy's recent triumph over O'Sullivan. However, Murphy had apologised for comments he made in the past subsequent to his Champions of Champions victory and O'Sullivan responded by saying he had "never had a problem with [Murphy]". Despite this, the morning session was edgy and the score ended level at 4–4. However, O'Sullivan won 6 out of the 7 frames played in the evening session to capture the title 10–5, his 31st career ranking title overall. During the final, O'Sullivan made 3 century breaks bringing his total to 10 for the tournament. With the victory, O'Sullivan matched Steve Davis' record of 6 UK Championship titles and Stephen Hendry's record of 18 major titles. After the match, Murphy described O'Sullivan's achievement as "phenomenal", while Davis lauded O'Sullivan as "one of the greatest winning machines" in the history of the game.

Scottish Open
At the Scottish Open, O'Sullivan recorded straightforward 4–1 victories over Michael Georgiou in the first round and Robert Milkins in the second. In his third round match against Li Hang, fatigue from his heavy schedule appeared to effect O'Sullivan as he took several 'power naps' between frames. O'Sullivan eventually triumphed 4–3 against Li. In the last 16, O'Sullivan defeated Michael White 4–1 to set-up a quarter-final clash with home favourite John Higgins. After losing his previous four encounters to O'Sullivan this season, Higgins whitewashed O'Sullivan 0–5 for the first time since 1994, 23 years ago. Afterwards, O'Sullivan said he was "kind of relieved" to lose.

German Masters qualifying
O'Sullivan was due to face Rory McLeod in the German Masters qualifiers, but withdrew due to medical reasons.

The Masters
As two-time defending champion, O'Sullivan's defence of his Masters title was hampered by illness. During each of his two matches he complained of "dizzy spells" and "double vision". Despite this, O'Sullivan outclassed Marco Fu to record a 6–0 first round whitewash, compiling three century breaks and scoring 649 points to Fu's 35. The match only lasted 96 minutes. BBC pundit John Parrott described O'Sullivan as being "at his very best" during the match. However facing eventual champion Mark Allen in the quarter-finals, the combination of the illness and strong resistance from Allen caught up to O'Sullivan, and he lost 1–6. Afterwards, O'Sullivan praised Allen's performance as "fantastic" and said he was "glad" to be out of the competition.

World Grand Prix
After a month out of competition, O'Sullivan returned to action at the World Grand Prix where he was the top seed (top of the one-year ranking list for the tournaments preceding the Grand Prix). He eased past Robert Milkins 4–0 in the last 32 before coming from 2–3 down to beat Yan Bingtao 4–3 in a narrow last 16 victory. O'Sullivan then recorded a 55-minute 5–0 whitewash of Xiao Guodong in the quarter-finals, compiling 4 centuries with a 99% pot success rate. O'Sullivan later said "I do sometimes praise myself and that was a very good match."

In the semi-final, O'Sullivan fell 2–4 behind to Stephen Maguire after being drawn into "long tactical exchanges" before hitting back by winning four frames in a row with quick-fire breaks of 72, 83 and 128 to progress to his sixth final of the season 6–4. Facing Ding Junhui in the title match, O'Sullivan established a 6–3 advantage in the afternoon session (compiling 3 century breaks) to take control of the match despite both players struggling for fluency at times. O'Sullivan then denied Ding any chance of a comeback by winning all four frames of the evening session to capture his 32nd career ranking title and fourth of this season 10–3. This marked a new personal best for number of ranking titles won in a single season for O'Sullivan.

Welsh Open
At the Welsh Open, O'Sullivan received a first round walkover after his opponent Robin Hull withdrew due to medical reasons. O'Sullivan then whitewashed all his next three opponents – Graeme Dott, David Grace and Mike Dunn, on route to the quarter-finals. However, facing John Higgins for the sixth time this season, O'Sullivan lost 5 consecutive frames after winning the first to be knocked out 1–5. Higgins said after the match that he "felt Ronnie was not there at all."

Players Championship
At the Players Championship, O’Sullivan won his first match comfortably 6–1 against Graeme Dott. In the quarter-finals against Ding Junhui, O’Sullivan trailed 0–2 before responding to level the match at 2–2. After sharing frames, O'Sullivan finished stronger winning three frames in a row including back-to-back centuries in the last two frames to advance to the semi-finals 6–3 where he faced defending champion, Judd Trump. In a dramatic seesawing match, Trump initially held a two frame advantage at 0–2 before O'Sullivan fought back to lead 3–2 (including making a break of 143). Trump then turned the tables to lead 3–4 and 4–5 before O'Sullivan leveled to set up a decider. Despite Trump having the first scoring chance, after he went in-off, O'Sullivan responded by making a match winning break to triumph 6–5. O’Sullivan faced Shaun Murphy in the final, the third title match of the 2017/2018 season they had contested. After taking the lead at 2–1, O’Sullivan never relinquished his advantage, eventually winning the championship by 10–4. By winning the title, O'Sullivan matched the record of Stephen Hendry, Ding Junhui and Mark Selby for most ranking title wins in a single season with five. O'Sullivan credited this achievement by being "focused on match snooker".

China Open
O’Sullivan began the China Open with his heldover qualifying match (as the number two seeded player), where he progressed to the main draw with a 6–2 victory over Ross Muir. In the first round of the main draw, O'Sullivan suffered a surprise 2–6 loss to Elliot Slessor in an "error-strewn performance", the second time Slessor had beaten O'Sullivan in the 2017/2018 season. However, in the 5th frame of the match, O'Sullivan made his first maximum break since the 2014 UK Championship, his 14th on record.

World Championship
In the first round of the World Championship, O'Sullivan trailed Stephen Maguire 0–4 and 3–6 overnight before winning seven of the next eight frames to win 10–7. Prior to the second round, O'Sullivan's opponent Ali Carter (who had not defeated O'Sullivan in a ranking event) added further tension to the tie claiming that "it was the Ronnie O'Sullivan show all the time", which escalated during the match when O'Sullivan and Carter "barged" into each other and exchanged words during the 19th frame. O'Sullivan told Carter to "stop being angry" and later claimed that he had been barged into by Carter earlier in the match. Carter eventually beat O'Sullivan 9–13. O'Sullivan conceded afterwards that he was second best throughout the entire match.

All WPBSA sanctioned matches
The following tables document all matches that took place as part of WPBSA sanctioned tournaments that Ronnie O'Sullivan entered in the 2017/2018 snooker season.

World Snooker Tour
The following table chronicles all the main tour matches of O'Sullivan.

CVB Snooker Challenge
O'Sullivan played both singles and doubles representing Great Britain in the WPBSA sanctioned non-ranking CVB Snooker Challenge.

World Snooker Tour season records
The following records do not contain any non-tour matches.

Ranking history
O'Sullivan began the season ranked no. 14 on the world ranking list. Following his UK Championship victory, he climbed to world no. 2 and remained there for the rest of the season. Despite winning five world ranking titles O'Sullivan finished the season ranked second on the one year ranking list, behind 2018 World Champion Mark Williams.

Head-to-head matchups
O'Sullivan's 2017/2018 season overall record was. His record against players seeded with a rank within the top 16 at the time of their meetings was.

Bold indicates player was ranked top 16 at time of at least one meeting. Record shown in round brackets indicates their meetings when player was ranked within the top 16 if different from the overall season record. Italic indicates player was ranked world no. 1 at time of at least one meeting. Record shown in square brackets indicates their meetings when player was ranked no. 1 if different from the overall season record. The following list is ordered by number of wins, then reverse ordered by number of defeats and then chronologically ordered:


 * John Higgins 4–2
 * Graeme Dott 3–0
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Judd Trump 3–0
 * Stephen Maguire 3–0
 * 🇨🇾 Michael Georgiou 2–0
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Michael White 2–0
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Robert Milkins 2–0
 * 🇨🇳 Ding Junhui 2–0
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Shaun Murphy 2–1
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Sam Baird 1–0
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 David Gilbert 1–0
 * 🇨🇳 Zhang Anda 1–0
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Mark Davis 1–0
 * 🇨🇳 Zhang Yong 1–0
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Jack Lisowski 1–0
 *  Anthony McGill 1–0
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Kyren Wilson 1–0
 * Gerard Greene 1–0
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Anthony Hamilton 1–0
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Christopher Keogan 1–0
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Gary Wilson 1–0
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Joe Perry 1–0
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Barry Hawkins 1–0
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Mark Williams 1–0
 * 🇩🇪 Lukas Kleckers 1–0
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Duane Jones 1–0
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Jackson Page 1–0
 * 🇹🇭 Sunny Akani 1–0
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Martin Gould 1–0
 * 🇨🇳 Li Hang 1–0
 * 🇭🇰 Marco Fu 1–0
 * 🇨🇳 Xiao Guodong 1–0
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 David Grace 1–0
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Mike Dunn 1–0
 * Ross Muir 1–0
 * 🇦🇺 Neil Robertson 1–1
 * 🇨🇳 Yan Bingtao 1–1
 * 🇧🇪 Luca Brecel 0–1
 * Mark Allen 0–1
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Ali Carter 0–1
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Elliot Slessor 0–2

Finals (5 titles, 2 runners-up)
O'Sullivan reached seven finals and won five titles in the 2017/2018 season:

Ranking points
The following table documents the results of all world ranking tournaments O'Sullivan competed in during the 2017/2018 season and the ranking points he was awarded for each result. Ranking points were distributed according to the prize money schedule. This also represents his total prize money from world ranking results (in £):

Non-ranking results
The following table documents the results of all non-world ranking tournaments O'Sullivan competed in during the 2017/2018 season and the prize money he was awarded for each result:

High break prizes
The following table documents all high break and maximum prizes (indicated in bold) O'Sullivan received during the 2017/2018 season and the prize money he was awarded for each:

Season
The following table totals all prize money O'Sullivan earned in the 2017/2018 season on the World Snooker Tour:

Career total
O'Sullivan began the 2017/2018 season with £8.8 million (to the nearest £100,000) in career total prize money. O'Sullivan ended the 2017/2018 season having earned £852,000 from prize money from ranking results, non-ranking results and high break prizes, therefore bringing his total to £9.7 million (to the nearest £100,000).

Season
During the 2017/2018 season, O'Sullivan made the following total number of century breaks:

Career total
O'Sullivan began the 2017/2018 season with 874 career total century breaks. O'Sullivan ended the 2017/2018 season with 74 additional century breaks, therefore bringing his total to (874+74=) 948.