Dom loses but passion is back
COVENTRY-born potter Dominic Dale believes he is back at one with snooker despite crashing out of the 19.com English Open at the last 32 stage.
The 47-year-old considered stepping away from the sport after over quarter of a century on the tour, admitting he had lost his love for the table and was practicing because he had to rather than because he wanted to.
Now though, he has struck a fine balance with practice and life away from a sport he was becoming disillusioned with.
Although his run in Crawley came to an end with a 4-2 defeat to China’s Tian Pengfei, he was thrilled with his progression to the third round.
A 4-3 first round win over former world No.1 Ding Junhui showed Dale can still mix it with the best, and an impressive break of 142 in his final match against Tian saw him walk away from the venue with a smile on his face.
“I’m coming to tournaments now knowing I can compete which certainly wasn’t the case last year, so that’s nice,” he said.
“I was really struggling last year – I’ve been a professional for 27 years and I just couldn’t do the amount of practice anymore, and subsequently I got the results I deserved. But I woke up a couple of months ago and decided I wanted to practice a bit more and I’ve replaced the quantity with quality now.
“Although I felt fortunate to beat Ding, I was really pleased with that and I was happy with my break in the last game as well.
“I haven’t really been doing that sort of thing for a while so it was nice to know I still have what it takes. It’s been a decent week for sure.”
Dale’s impressive century handed the former world No.19 the lead against Tian, but the Chinese star responded with a ton and a halfcentury in the final three frames to steal victory.
But in amongst the hectic snooker period – with games now coming thick and fast – Dale is looking forward to transferring his new-found form to his next match against fivetime world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan at the World Open in China.
He said: “I made the kind of mistakes the older players do, but when you’ve let the game go for a year like I have, it’s not easy to get back to a good level. It’s about making little steps.
“I’m really looking forward to giving Ronnie a good go. I know I’m capable performing well – and Ronnie’s form can be indifferent at times – so I’ll definitely be going there to try and win.”