Brand new WST tour card holder Antoni Kowalski labels the seven-time world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan as ‘arrogant’.
Kowalski’s junior career thus far has seen him win the World Open Under-16 Snooker Championships in 2019 and racked up three national titles in his native country of Poland.
In 2023, he further showcased his natural talent by winning a feeder Q Tour tournament. The Polish starlet’s professional journey began in Leicester in June and he drew 2-2 against World Championship 2024 finalist Jak Jones.
When asked who his favourite players are, Kowalski shared his experience with the snooker great from a couple of years ago.
Antoni Kowalski shares his experience with Ronnie O’Sullivan
Kowalski formulated his opinion based on his own experience of meeting Snooker’s biggest star, revealing to the Metro that he found him to be ‘arrogant’.
He expanded on his opinion on Ronnie O’Sullivan further on BBC’s Framed: The Snooker Podcast: “I don’t like Ronnie [O’Sullivan] for his character just because sometimes he lacks the respect. That’s it. I don’t have anything against Ronnie, just to be clear. He’s the greatest player ever to play snooker, of course.
“But talking about numpties a couple of years back – I would never do that, and I don’t see any other player doing that.”
Despite this view, the 20-year-old doesn’t use it against him and hopes to be closely acquainted with the all-time great once he fully embarks on the main tour.
Kowalski continued: “Apart from that, I don’t have anything against him. If it’s possible, I will tell him straight to his face and we can become friends.
“I just wanted to say one thing because, in the other interviews, the other interviewer asked me about Ronnie because I said about Shaun and John and said I didn’t mention Ronnie [O’Sullivan] and that I am the first person he knows who didn’t mention Ronnie [O’Sullivan].”
Was Kowalski right to say that about O’Sullivan?
Kowalski’s opinion on O’Sullivan could spark plenty of debate about whether it was the right thing to say about one of the sport’s biggest personalities.
In the lead-up to sharing his opinion on the all-time great, he explained that he bases his opinion on professional players from his own personal experiences.
He recalled the story of attending an exhibition in his hometown which featured former world champions Shaun Murphy and Mark Selby.
“I was lucky enough to meet Shaun [Murphy] and Mark [Selby] when I was 6 or 7 years old, so they were the first pros[professionals] I met.
“They came to my home city for an exhibition; I was not ranking the players level-wise, snooker-wise; I was ranking them as characters [and] how good of a person they were and Shaun [Murphy] is a great person. I also met John Higgins a couple years later.”