Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
WE’RE THE THREE ACES
Ronnie: Me, John and Mark are like the great tennis triumvirate... fans think we’re a smash and we’ll leave a big hole when we all quit the sport
RONNIE O’SULLIVAN reckons snooker’s Holy Trinity will be sorely missed when they are gone – much like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in tennis.
The Rocket takes on Liverpool’s Robbie Williams today in York as he bids to extend his own event record by winning an eighth UK Championship.
O’sullivan is part of the iconic ‘Class of 92’ along with John Higgins and Mark Williams. The trio are all in their 30th season on tour and between them have won 13 world crowns and an astonishing 159 tour titles.
O’sullivan, also a regular pundit for Eurosport, believes that with longevity comes fan loyalty.
The World No.3 said: “In tennis you look at Federer, Nadal and Djokovic who are such greats and have dominated the sport for so long, and in the recent ATP
Finals you didn’t have two of them.
“They are really hard to replace, you almost can’t replace Federer and Nadal, they are one-offs for their sport for what they have achieved.
“People follow those players not just for the odd match but for their whole career. You’re on a journey with them and that comes over time.
“I can see why people have occasionally made that comparison to snooker and myself,
John Higgins and Mark Williams.
“People love the longevity and how long you’ve been at it. They come up to you and say, ‘When I was a student at university I started following you then’.
“And though you have never met them, they have been following your career for 30 years.
“It is important to have that relationship. And maybe yes, when we stop it could be similar and have some sort of effect on the game, or leave a hole, especially if we all left around the same time.” O’sullivan, who lost all five of his finals last season, has seen Scot Higgins suffer this term, being beaten in the last three major finals.
The Rocket believes that becoming a little more laid-back in the style of Williams might also help Higgins, who bared his soul when he claimed he could no longer handle the pressure at the top level after losing the English Open final to Neil Robertson. O’sullivan added: “Maybe it did feel a bit uncomfortable at one moment seeing John like that. I feel that you almost cannot try that hard or care to that degree. “If John is putting that amount of effort in and it is taking so much out of him that he can no longer be philosophical about it, it will be more difficult.
“Look at Mark Williams. Same age, but such a different mindset.
“He would laugh at himself and say, ‘Oh, look at me, I was 8-6 up and I’ve lost 9-8 again, my bottle’s gone!’
“When you are younger you want to graft it out always, but at some point maybe at our age you have to learn to enjoy it, take what you can from it, don’t read too much into results.”