He is physically fit, a millionaire, uniquely gifted and idolised wherever the game is popular, but when it comes to playing the sport that created his wealth and celebrity, Ronnie O’Sullivan continues to suffer from unfathomably negative selfperception.
O’Sullivan beat Peter Ebdon 6-3 to reach the semi-finals of the PokerStars.com Masters at Wembley Arena yesterday. It was a tidy display with much to be admired, yet his post-match comments were those normally associated with a veteran who accepts that his career is in terminal decline.
“I can only tell you how it feels,” O’Sullivan, who is attempting to win the Masters for a fifth time, said. “I’m not going down the hopeful road. I don’t think I’ll ever get my top form back. I’ve not felt confident for 17 years, I’ve just been blagging it.”
Apart from a brief interlude when O’Sullivan expressed his disgust with the majority of the Celebrity Big Brother housemates and denied ever considering joining the cast, his message was one of inappropriate resignation. “I ain’t getting serious about this game no more,” he said.
Ebdon, on the receiving end, as when beaten 9-3 by O’Sullivan in the last 16 of the Pukka Pies UK Championship last month, disagreed. “I think he’s playing a fantastic brand of snooker,” said Ebdon, echoing the sentiments of almost everyone apart from O’Sullivan. “The last two times I’ve played him, he’s been almost perfect for long stretches. I can’t remember coming up against that since I played Stephen Hendry in the Nineties. At times Ronnie was exceptional.”
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O’Sullivan regularly erred when potting from distance, but impressed in building a 4-0 lead with breaks of 92, 53, 74 and 44. Helped by fluking the last red in the fifth frame, and laying a fortunate snooker late in the sixth, Ebdon not only averted a whitewash but also, given his powers of recovery, laid a platform for a full-scale comeback.
Those thoughts were dispelled when O’Sullivan — assisted by runs of 53, 44 and 106, the last launched by a trend-bucking long red — added the two frames required for a semi-final against Mark Williams, who beat Shaun Murphy 6-4 last night.
However, O’Sullivan maintains that his glass is not only half-empty but cracked, allowing the contents to drain away fast. “I’m surprised I won,” he said. “I was there for the taking. Two years ago I found something. I made three maximums, won the World and UK Championship, but then it disappeared.”
Williams, who suffered whiplash injuries to his shoulder and neck during a minor car accident on Monday, remained a touch stiff in spite of painkillers and a massage, but overcame the discomfort to book his first Masters semi-final since winning the game’s foremost invitation tournament in 2003.