O'Sullivan withdrew from the first ranking event of the season, the Shanghai Masters, citing back problems for which doctors had advised him not to travel. He also chose not to enter the invitational Pot Black tournament. He made the final of the Grand Prix, but lost 6–9 against Marco Fu. During the Northern Ireland Trophy, he set a new record by compiling five centuries in a 5–2 win over Ali Carter. This also included his seventh official competitive 147 maximum break. O'Sullivan went out of the tournament in the next round, having lost against Fergal O'Brien. On 2 December 2007, he won a fourth consecutive, and record seventh total, Premier League Snooker title, by beating John Higgins in the final by a score of 7–4. On 15 December 2007, O'Sullivan compiled his eighth maximum break in competition, in the deciding frame of his UK Championship semi–final against Mark Selby at Telford, equalling Hendry's record. In doing so, he also became only the third person in professional competition to compile a maximum to win a match. Hendry had made the first against O'Sullivan in the 1997 Charity Challenge final, and Mark Williams had made the second, at the Crucible in the first round of the 2005 World Championship. O'Sullivan is also the second player after John Higgins to make breaks of 147 in two consecutive ranking tournaments (2007 Northern Ireland Trophy and 2007 Maplin UK Championship). He then went on to win the tournament, beating Stephen Maguire 10–2 in the final (from 8–0 up), thereby receiving a £100,000 cheque for winning his first ranking tournament in almost three years.