RON’S TOLD TO SHOW RESPECT
Doherty slams O’sullivan
FORMER world champion Ken Doherty believes Ronnie O’sullivan should shut up and just concentrate on letting his snooker do the talking. The Rocket kicked off his seventh World Championship Final against Kyren Wilson in Sheffield.
But the five-time world champion courts controversy and has upset many professionals at snooker’s premier tournament this year.
O’sullivan branded many of his fellow professionals as “half decent amateurs” who are
“so bad” and “poor”, before predicting “I would have to lose an arm and a leg to fall out of the top 50”.
And that has angered
Doherty, widelyregarded as one of the most popular ambassadors for the green-baize game.
“No other top sportsmen in their sport would disrespect their fellow professionals like Ronnie has done,” stressed Doherty. “You wouldn’t get a Roger Federer or a Tiger Woods doing it, or a Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi in their sports.
“I thought he crossed the line there and I didn’t like it. That’s completely wrong and that irritated me. I want to speak out and defend those guys. I think I have to say something to take a stand for those guys.
“A lot of these lower-ranked players don’t have a voice, nobody is putting a camera in front of them.
“He’s an inspiration to a lot of those guys, so to slag them off like that was morally wrong and disrespectful. I just didn’t like it.”
Three-time world champion Mark Selby accused O’sullivan of being “disrespectful to me and the game” after his 17-16 semi-final loss.
O’sullivan hammered a few balls around the table at 16-14 down, but produced a stunning comeback to triumph.
And fellow three-time Crucible winner Mark Williams accused the Rocket of “slagging off” snooker for no reason.
Doherty added: “There’s no doubt he’s the greatest player to have ever played the game and I love watching him when he’s playing.
“It’s great that he’s in this year’s final, it’s great for the sport, but I just don’t like it when he slags off other players. I really don’t know half the time what he talks about, it’s very strange and bizarre.
“He’s been disrespectful to the other players. To say his fellow professionals were useless and not even up to the standard of good amateurs, that wasn’t nice.
“At the end of the day he is an ambassador for the game. A lot of those players look up to him.”
Last night Wilson took the last two frames before the mid-session interval to reduce O’sullivan’s lead to 8-4.