Neil Robertson has been a refreshing voice on commentary at the World Snooker Championship and yesterday he was seriously impressed with Ronnie O’Sullivan.
This year’s tournament isn’t quite going according to the script.
Three qualifiers make up the final four, with Jak Jones, Stuart Bingham and Dave Gilbert joining seeded player Kyren Wilson.
O’Sullivan was defeated 13-10 after a pretty bland final session which saw him lose his cool and his composure against the 2015 World Champion.
However, in the afternoon session, O’Sullivan did something that really impressed Robertson.
Ronnie O’Sullivan did something that Neil Robertson has never done before
Well, there was a moment in the second session of the O’Sullivan vs Bingham match that even the snooker purists won’t have seen before.
After O’Sullivan had potted a black with the score at 6-5 to the seven-time winner, referee Desislava Bozhilova tried to respot it.
However, the ball kept rolling back off of his spot – a situation that can arise when the cloth on the table becomes worn.
Despite the referee advising that the respot was complete – and O’Sullivan being able to see the red, he didn’t feel it was right.
After some deliberation, O’Sullivan took matters into his own hands and instead of potting the red he played safe and eventually lost the frame.
Robertson was seriously impressed and left stunned by the act of sportsmanship from O’Sullivan.
He said live on the BBC: “I’ve never seen anything like that.
“That’s the greatest piece of sportsmanship I’ve ever seen in any sport ever.
“I just can’t believe it.”
Bad O’Sullivan press isn’t overly fair
There was another incident in this match where O’Sullivan told the referee Bozhilova to ‘chill’ after fans were trying to enter The Crucible whilst play was going on.
This was perhaps heat of the moment stuff and O’Sullivan might have handled things better.
However, he does deserve a lot of credit for this respot incident and in playing safe it showed that he didn’t want to gain an advantage from anything.
O’Sullivan is a wonderful ambassador for the game of snooker and he remains the game’s biggest sell as Barry Hearn looks to see the game expand into other countries.
Ronnie O’Sullivan must wait for eighth world crown
The wait goes on for the man who has claimed the greatest prize in the sport on seven occasions – but don’t write him off just yet.
O’Sullivan has won The Masters and the UK Championship this season and his game is still there.
Against Bingham, he came up against an opponent who wasn’t intimidated by him and enjoyed the challenge of playing the greatest ever.
O’Sullivan doesn’t have time on his side given that he’s now 48 but when he brings his best game, he still takes some serious beating.
It’s now two quarter-final exits since he won his seventh crown in 2022 and next year he will surely be aiming to reach the one-table setup once again.
The wait goes on for now but O’Sullivan will definitely be back.