Ronnie O’Sullivan made short work of it on Thursday. For two frames he didn’t even give his opponent Jackson Page a full lesson and completed his first-round dominance at the World Snooker Championship, which had started the day before. In the end it was 10:1 for O’Sullivan who is now in round two, where he will face Welshman Ryan Day.
Other favorites had a much more difficult time opening at the Crucible Theater in Sheffield. For some of the supposed title candidates This season has already ended. First up was still world champion Luca Brecel, who lost 9:10 to David Gilbert despite a 9:6 lead.
It was also quite surprising the elimination of Allister Carter against Stephen Maguire. Carter had a strong season, Maguire not so much. Nevertheless, the Scot prevailed 10:7. Also astonishing was Mark Selby’s exit against World Cup newcomer Joe O’Connor. Vice world champion Selby continued his downward trend of the past few months.
Either I come back next year or not – you will see.
Mark Selby about a possible resignation from Eurosport.
A few weeks ago, Selby had publicly thought about even ending his career. And that remains an option for him after the early exit. “I’ll think about it in the summer”said the 40-year-old at Eurosport and explained that he had not had much fun this season. “Either I come back next year or not – you’ll see,” he added.
There was another surprise Match between Mark Williams and Si Jiahui, in which the Chinese narrowly prevailed 10:9. Williams had recently won the Tour Championship and defeated Ronnie O’Sullivan in the final. This time all he could do was congratulate his opponent, who he still has a lot of confidence in at this tournament: “I think he certainly has the potential to win the World Cup this year,” Williams said at SportsBoom.com.
The match between Ding Junhui and Jack Lisowski was also dramatic, in which the Englishman, also a lower-ranked player, prevailed 10:9, once again destroying the best Chinese’s dream of perhaps winning the World Cup again. Si Jiahui is the only player from China still represented in the tournament. The remaining 15 players all come from Great Britainwith England alone represented ten times.
Northern Irishman Mark Allen showed a solid performance in his 10:6 win against Robbie Williams. Afterwards, however, he complained about not getting the attention, which he actually deserved as number four in the world. Nothing was shown about his match on the BBC.
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Allen also doesn’t believe that this would change much if he were to win the World Cup and cited world champion Luca Brecel as an example via SportsBoom.com: “I had conversations with people from the World Snooker Association and the media and they said that Luca didn’t have a name big enough to tell more about him. If that’s true, we have a problem.“
It is undisputed that Ronnie O’Sullivan still stands head and shoulders above everyone in snooker in this respect. On the other hand, his colleagues also benefit from the popularity of the seven-time world champion. A tournament involving O’Sullivan immediately enhances this in the eyes of the public.
And when he rushes around the corner with his typically idiosyncratic statements or there is even a clinch like the one between him and Allister Carter recently, snooker is suddenly interesting to many more people. Or to put it with Ronnie himself: “There are people who wouldn’t make it to the opening act themselves, but They talk about me or tease me a little and have the headline.” For the future, he has decided to “simply stop adding fuel to the fire.”
However, this is difficult to imagine for anyone who knows O’Sullivan.