TNT Sports pundits Jimmy White and Alan McManus have questioned whether or not Ronnie O’Sullivan can challenge for the UK Championship title this week in York.
White, a UK Championship winner 33 years ago, and three-time semi-finalist McManus were speaking ahead of O’Sullivan’s round one match against Zhou Yuelong that’ll take place on Tuesday.
O’Sullivan is a record eight-time winner of the prestigious Triple Crown tournament, memorably claiming his maiden ranking title in the tournament as a 17 year-old back in 1993.
The Rocket’s most recent success at the Barbican Centre transpired two years ago when he defeated Ding Junhui in the final.
It came in the middle of one of O’Sullivan’s best-ever seasons where he also won titles at the Masters, the Shanghai Masters, the World Grand Prix, and the Riyadh Season World Masters of Snooker.
But the soon-to-be 50 year-old has failed to add to his huge trophy cabinet since early in 2024, with his overall form patchy amid a lighter schedule which has seen him pick and choose only a select number of events to enter.
The closest O’Sullivan came to glory this season was at the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters where he reached the final with a double maximum break performance in the semi-finals against Chris Wakelin.
O’Sullivan played well in a 10-9 reverse against Neil Robertson in the final and has actually seemed happier with his game overall this term, but results since the rich Riyadh ranking event have been mixed.
He reached the quarter-finals of the Xi’an Grand Prix where he lost to Gary Wilson and was beaten early at the International Championship by Jack Lisowski.
O’Sullivan was also heavily beaten in his first match at the Riyadh Season Snooker Championship by Shaun Murphy just over a week ago.
“I’m expecting Ronnie to play okay,” McManus, who reached a world ranking high of number six before retiring in 2021, said in the TNT Sports studio on Saturday.
“Whether we’re going to see fireworks, I don’t know. The only problem I have with Ronnie, as a snooker fan, I think in this game it has to be a lifestyle choice.”
“I don’t think that Ronnie has that any more. He wants to do other things – we understand that, he’s 50 in a few days time.
“But if you’re going to continue being a superstar of the game, possibly [the burning desire isn’t there].”
White wasn’t convinced that the desire wasn’t there but felt that there was another issue that was holding his old friend back – a lack of playing time and competitive match practice.
“During the World Championship, whoever he played in every round [before the semis] didn’t play at all against him,” said White, the 1992 UK champion.
“Ali Carter was really poor. We didn’t ever think for a minute that he was going to win the World Championship.”
“He came across Xintong and got beat quite convincingly in the end and as soon as someone played well against him.
“He must have gone away in the summer, changed his cue, and the way he played against Neil Robertson in Saudi Arabia – he ended up losing 10-9 and he was 7-2 behind.
“For me, he’s not had the match practice. He’s not sharp. We wouldn’t be surprised if he came here and won this championship, because he’s that good. But he’s not match sharp.”
O’Sullivan will turn 50 on Friday to become one of three quinquagenarian all-time legends who are in the tournament, the others being his fellow Class of ’92 graduates John Higgins and Mark Williams.
Williams begins his 2025 campaign at the UK Championship on Sunday when he meets qualifier David Gilbert in the first round.
Higgins, meanwhile, is already through to the last 16 after recording a 6-2 triumph over Ben Woollaston on the opening day of the venue stages.
The Scot will face Shaun Murphy, and the Magician was full of praise for the Class of ’92’s achievements after he came through his first-round showdown with Lyu Haotian unscathed.
“I was sat this morning having my breakfast watching the news, and there was a lovely piece about the Class of ’92,” Murphy said.
“There is no escaping these guys and what they continue to achieve is remarkable. I’ve enjoyed watching John throughout my career.”
“He has been a big help to me and helped me a lot as a junior player. I have watched him a lot, I just hope I don’t have to watch him too much in the next round.
“It has shown what the rest of us can do if we keep our heads down. When I started snooker you used to think your career would be over by 40.
“The Class of ’92 have been trailblazers all of their lives, and they continue to do that.”
Featured photo credit: WST
There’s already three quinquagenarians in the field as David Lilley turned 50 in October.
O’Sullivan remains the youngest and oldest winner of the UK Championship.
Maguire’s defeat yesterday pivoted on a missed red to middle where the slate must have caused the Scot to miss in frame seven. At this point, Maguire had Trump rattled. The respot in the next frame was the other key moment in a match where I felt the 2004 champion played the better. Trump now leads Maguire 19-16 in all meetings.
Maguire’s tally of 102 UK Championship centuries is bettered only by Stephen Hendry and O’Sullivan.
This must be the first professional snooker tournament where England are not the sole largest provider of the most players in the final line-up. A tally of 12 Englishmen matches the record Chinese haul in York.
Indeed about Lilley.
Does Maguire know what a professional safety is? — that’s how he should’ve played that redd, which was way too risky: a professional safety was the shot to play — I was chanting ‘professional safety’ at my TV, but apparently he didn’t hear me.
It’s difficult to write off O’Sullivan but I do feel that he is viewed as an opponent that other players are happy to play now. He isn’t professionally feared by top players, or even aspiring up and comers, instead he’s a name to back yourself to beat now. That’s my feeling of how his peers view him in the draw. Obviously he can win against any of them too, but so many players on the tour can have that said of them now. I’m keen to see him this week; it’s genuinely interesting to see how the rocket will play each time he arrives at an event.
I’m not sure about that as some of his tournament wins in recent years have been assisted by certain players fearing what he’s capable of. Zhou Yuelong, his next opponent, is one of those. Ali Carter and Dave Gilbert are another two that come to mind.
Assuming he wins his 1st round match and Selby his, they’ll meet in the 2nd round.
Something went a bit wrong in the seeding/draw.
Shocker! — actually it’s not a shock that O’Sullivan lost his 1st round match.
50/50 he pulls out of the Masters.