Neil Robertson: O'Sullivan is still under pressure in the new season

Picture: Neil Robertson

Neil Robertson on his whole story during the 2024 World Championships

May 23, 2024 | FrankReport

Obviously, the past two seasons have been the most difficult development stage for Neil Robertson since he became a professional in 1998. Since he won a big victory in the 21/22 season, Neil Robertson has immediately fallen into a low performance dilemma. Neil Robertson, who is increasingly outsmarted, has achieved the best results of the two semi-finals and the top four in the just concluded 23/24 season (2023 Shanghai Masters; 2024 World Open), he was defeated in the qualifying round of this year's World Championships, so he missed the World Championships for the first time in 20 years.

"I really didn't expect that I would miss this year's World Championships." Neil Robertson, who won the World Championships in 2010, told Metro News reporter Phil Hager recently: "After losing to Jamie Jones in the final round of the World Championships qualification, I thought: OK, let's end this season in this way.".

Picture: Neil Robertson failed in qualifying round of this year's World Championships (9-10 Jamie Jones)

"Then I received an invitation to explain, and BBC Sports invited me to go to the World Championships to explain the game with John Palotte and others", Neil Robertson continued: "I admit that I intended to refuse this invitation, because if I went, I would be really embarrassed and stupid, because I was not old enough to retire, and I didn't get the chance to participate in the main race of this year's World Championships. This psychological gap and" falling behind "reality even I didn't understand and could not accept, It's even a bit humiliating, you know? ".

Picture: Neil Robertson is in the BBC sports studio. On the right is the 6th World Champion Davis

However, Neil Robertson, who accepted the invitation, quickly adapted to the new job. He and (1991 World Champion) John Palotte were happy to express their insights about the players' performance in the live broadcast room. Neil Robertson said modestly that during the cooperation with Palotte, His greatest achievement in participating in the commentary work is: "When commenting on the competition, I learned when to speak and when not to speak".

"I enjoy the interpretation work at present", Neil Robertson continued: "Although many people around me said: "It's really a pity that you didn't participate in this year's World Championships. Admittedly, I'm really sad that you didn't participate in the World Championships for the first time in so many years. But I think the tip of the commentary work is that besides the snooker game itself, as a professional player, you can really try other work around snooker".

Picture: Neil Robertson and (1991 World Champion) John Palotte are commenting on the competition

Neil Robertson also believes that O'Sullivan is under real pressure to win the 8th World Championships. Although O'Sullivan claimed that he had nothing to pursue after he reached the 7th World Championships in 2022 to equalise Hendry, while Neil Robertson explained the match between O'Sullivan and Bingham during this year's World Championships Neil Robertson discovered the signs of the pressure O'Sullivan was under.

O'Sullivan lost 10-13 to Bingham in the quarter final of this year's World Championships (see the figure below).

Neil Robertson said: "I can see from O'Sullivan's eyes that he is under pressure to pursue the eighth championship of the World Championships. In addition, O'Sullivan's many negotiations with the referee on the scene can also reflect his uneasy mood at that time. O'Sullivan suspects that the crowd on the scene caused by the crowd entering the arena has affected him, which is actually one of O'Sullivan's helplessness at the time of pressure.".

But Neil Robertson also praised O'Sullivan's sportsmanship. O'Sullivan was expected to win in the 12th inning with Bingham, but O'Sullivan lost the victory in this inning because of his "stubbornness". The reason for this is that the referee left a chance to hit the white ball after resetting the black ball, but O'Sullivan gave up the shot and turned to defense, He also told the opponent and the referee that he thought the position of the black ball after it was reset was not accurate.

Picture: In the 12th inning of the quarter final of this year's World Championships, O'Sullivan and the referee Bozlova had a dispute over the accuracy of the black ball reset.

As the witness of the competition at that time, Neil Robertson said: "At that time, after the referee reset the black ball, a red ball near the black ball could score by percent, but O'Sullivan insisted that if the referee reset the black ball completely correctly, the black ball would prevent the white ball from hitting the lower ball point of a red ball near, so O'Sullivan preferred to defend rather than" make mistakes ", Because O'Sullivan did not want to gain an advantage from "wrong reset", in the eyes of Neil Robertson, this is really great sportsmanship.

Figure: O'Sullivan achieved the seventh world championship in 2022

Neil Robertson, who is currently ranked 24th in the world, also revealed that he will not land in a game to participate in all the games in the 24/25 new season, in order to seek to restore his former competitive state and his own amazing scoring rhythm: "I have been practicing hard in recent weeks, and I have actually" run "into the new season ahead of time. Before the start of the new season I certainly need to find my proper competitive state in advance ".

Before the start of the 24/25 new season, Neil Robertson had 23 ranking championship titles and six "three major" titles (World Championships 1, Masters 2, and British Championships 3). Neil Robertson was recognized as the best non British player at present.