Both aged 34 and born in 1975, Higgins won the World Snooker Championship in 1998, 2007 and 2009 and O'Sullivan 2001, 2004 and 2008 for a total haul of 6 world titles between them.
It would seem to follow a fairly regular pattern of 6 or so victories for whoever is the dominant force in the game that particular decade, with the exception that Higgins and O'Sullivan ended up sharing the spoils, unlike their greedy predecessors.
Despite having a history dating back to 1927, the modern era of the World Snooker Championship began in 1969 when it became a knock-out tournament. Since then, Ray Reardon was the undisputed king of the 70's and the won the competition a total of 6 times in 1970, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, and 1978.
Ray Reardon (born 1932) enjoyed his reign at the more advanced age of 38 to 46, but considering the transformation snooker underwent in the 1970's to take it away from the working men's clubs into becoming a modern sport, this is hardly surprising.
With Steve Davis (born 1957), the age of snooker came down and he enjoyed his stranglehold on the World Snooker Championship in the 1980's, aged 24 to 32, winning the tournament in 1981, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1988, and 1989.
Alex Hurricane Higgins was the prerequisite exciting, quick player who competed against both Reardon and then Davis during their reigns,and in the process picked up a couple of titles of his own in 1972 and 1982.
Jimmy White (born 1962) then took over Alex Higgins' mantle as the biggest exponent of 'exciting' snooker, but despite appearing in a total of 7 finals between 1984 and 1994, including 1 against Davis and 4 against Stephen Hendry, the title of World Champion eluded him throughout his career.
In the meantime, Stephen Hendry (born 1969) reigned supreme throughout the 90's, and aged 21 to 30 became World Champion on 7 occasions, winning the competition in 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1999.
All of which takes us back to Ronnie O'Sullivan and John Higgins dominance of the 2000's, and their 3 titles a piece; O'Sullivan aged 26 to 33 and Higgins aged 23 to 34. It is probably the genius of O'Sullivan which allowed him to combine an exciting style of play with great ability to bludgeon the opposition, which saw him through to winning so many World titles.
I'm stilling hoping that there is more than a few surprises left in the dynamic duo of the 2000's, but in the meantime I can't help but looking ahead to what the 2010's may hold.
Considering the assortment of players currently on the snooker circuit, Mark Selby (born 1983) and Neil Robertson (born 1983) would seem to be the ones fast gaining a reputation as solid and dangerous opponents.
Although Selby and Robertson may find themselves being cast in the mould of the solid, yet entertaining modern player, it is unlikely they will be that type of player who will create the same interest in the game that has been created by the likes of Alex Higgins, Jimmy White or Ronnie O'Sullivan.
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