Ronnie O’Sullivan celebrated a fourth Crucible title with his young son in his arms and said: “It was the best feeling I’ve ever had.”

The 36-year-old demolished Ali Carter’s hopes, clinching an 18-11 victory in the World Champion-ship final Monday night.

Ronnie junior was brought forward for a hug in the centre of the arena, with emotions riding high.

The scenes brought back memories of Alex Higgins celebrating with daughter Lauren in 1982, and O’Sullivan was particularly overjoyed because he feared the day would never come that he would be champion in Sheffield again.

The champion of 2001, 2004, 2008 and now 2012 said: “I didn’t think I’d have the opportunity. But it’s so nice to have him here. He loves snooker. I’m trying to turn him but he’s having none of it.

“It was great to have him here watching, I got emotional even before the match was over because it felt like just me and him in this whole arena. To have close ones with me when I’m world champion is very special.”

And O’Sullivan intends to play on but has warned snooker chiefs they will have to treat him better in future.

With Steve Peters, a sports psychiatrist, having worked wonders over the past year in improving O’Sullivan’s mental state, the future could still be bright.

O’Sullivan will take a short break from the sport, but the plans to retire that he mooted on Saturday came to nothing.

He said: “I’m not saying I have retired. I’m saying family is the most important thing in my life. I work as hard as anyone in snooker and I just want to be treated fairly.

“That’s up to the governing body to treat players right.”

O’Sullivan repeated his claim that World Snooker are “blackmailing” players into appearing at the low-profile events, and he added: “I’m not going to hang around two years to wait for things to be fair.

“I’m having four, five, six months off now and I’ll assess the situation.”