Tampering with technique caused Rocket ‘to play as badly’ as he’s played in his life

RONNIE O’SULLIVAN’S decision to tamper with his technique has been questioned after his heavy loss at the English Open.

The Rocket was crushed 6-1 by Mark Davis at the K2 in Crawley, with former world No.3 and TV pundit Neal Foulds claiming he had played “as badly as I have seen him”.

Despite winning a recordequalling five ranking titles last season, world No.3 O’Sullivan, turned to Steve Feeney and his ‘SightRight’ coaching and alignment system over the summer.

Feeney is credited with turning around the career of Mark Williams and others, with the Welshman winning a surprise third world title in May.

But Foulds fears that, after a campaign that saw O’Sullivan produce some of his best snooker in years, he may be messing with perfection.

Foulds said: “I’d like to ask him where he goes from here. Obviously it’s just one match. He has been working on some stuff and only he knows whether that is the right thing to do.

“But he won five ranking titles last season.

“He played as badly against Mark Davis on Saturday as I have seen him. I don’t remember seeing him play as badly as this, certainly in the last three or four years.

“Clive Everton in commentary once said if you have a beautiful watch, why would you want to take it apart to see how it works? It’s what I think about Ronnie’s game.

“Ronnie was brilliant last season so why change anything? It’s his decision but as an observer I can’t see what he was doing wrong.”

Feeney, who also works with golfers, hit back, saying: “Nick Faldo faced two years of criticism as he embedded changes in his game.

“It’s great that Ronnie still wants to improve despite reducing tour commitments. A win and a semi-final isn’t a bad start.”