Ronnie O’Sullivan has been there and won it all - but says he enjoys the idea of dominating snooker more than the process of actually doing so.

The Rocket has soared to five World Championship titles between 2001 and 2013 and is currently gearing up for a tilt at a sixth crowning glory when the Betfred World Championship gets underway at the end of this month.

The world No.6 has claimed no fewer than 36 ranking event titles throughout a thrilling career with a cue in hand, striking fear into opponents far and wide and capturing the hearts of a snooker nation in the process.

O’Sullivan adopts a more selective approach with the tournaments he enters these days, only ranking 18th in the recent season standings and therefore failing to qualify for the Tour Championship behind closed doors.

The 44-year-old has enjoyed broadening his horizons and admits it was a tale from a friend about chasing women that helped strike a chord.

“I get my thrills in different ways now,” he said.

“Someone said to me, who was quite a handsome guy: ‘now I don’t chase the women, I just get the buzz out of knowing I can have them!’

“He said ‘I’m married, I’ve settled down so I can’t do that, but the buzz is in knowing I can have them if I wanted to have them!

“I just thought ‘okay, that’s a sign of confidence’ and I think I’m a little bit like that!

“I kind of separate myself from it [snooker] now, and over the last ten years I’ve decided that I just want to have fun with it.”

O’Sullivan has still enjoyed a series of successes other players could only dream of in recent years, winning back-to-back UK Championships - one of snooker’s Triple Crown events - in both 2017 and 2018.

And the Rocket was also coronated king of the Alexandra Palace at the Masters - another Triple Crown event - three times in four years between 2014 and 2017.

Success at the Crucible has alluded him in recent times, however, with O’Sullivan failing to progress past the quarter-finals in any of the previous five tournaments.

The world No.6 has triumphed in just three ranking events in the past two seasons and knows that while his ‘strike rate’ could be higher, he couldn’t be happier with the balance he’s struck.

“If I decided to maybe go down that road where I wanted to play more and be a bit like Stuart Bingham, and a lot of these other players, where they just play tournament after tournament, then I’d probably have a higher strike rate,” he added.

“But really, am I prepared to sacrifice my life for that? No, I’d just rather do it because I want to do it.”

Live snooker returns to Eurosport and the Eurosport app. Watch the World Championship from 31st July – 16th August with analysis from Jimmy White.