Ronnie O’Sullivan has been lauded by tennis star Novak Djokovic after the Rocket was spotted at Wimbledon yesterday.
With the snooker season just getting started with the Championship League, O’Sullivan took a day off from practice to take in some tennis.
It won’t have been a coincidence that he happened to have Centre Court tickets on a day when Djokovic was in action.
O’Sullivan is a seven-time World Snooker Champion and it’s no secret that he appreciates the greats in other sports.
Djokovic is one of those and after his win in the first round of Wimbledon, the man who has won 24 grand slam titles had some words of praise for O’Sullivan.
What Novak Djokovic said about Ronnie O’Sullivan
Everyone loves O’Sullivan in the world of snooker and he’s arguably the greatest player to ever pick up a snooker cue.
For Djokovic, he’s had to fight harder to claim the greatest-ever tag amid competition from Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
After yesterday’s win over Vit Kopriva, he was asked about O’Sullivan watching on from the crown and he admitted he was a big fan.
He told BBC Sport: “I’m his fan. I watch snooker just because of him. Honestly, I watched snooker as a kid and the only player I will watch is Ronnie. He’s one of the sporting greats I used to watch when I was a kid.
“It was nice to see him around and hopefully, I will play snooker one day. He’s a really nice person, a nice guy and really funny.”
O’Sullivan chasing similar goal to Djokovic
The Serbian player is bidding to get to nine Wimbledon titles to eclipse the eight won by Federer and right now he’s on seven titles.
After undergoing knee surgery before this year’s tournament, it remains to be seen whether or not he will be able to tick one off this year.
Ronnie finds himself in a similar situation when it comes to world titles.
The Rocket is level on seven with Stephen Hendry and although he won’t admit it, he’d love to stand along at the top of the tree with eight.
Djokovic is clearly an inspiration to O’Sullivan and yesterday he will have taken a lot from watching a master at work in his respective field.
Once the season gets into full swing, it will be interesting to see which O’Sullivan we see out on the table.