Shanghai Masters: Ronnie O'Sullivan says snooker 'needs a Max Verstappen', names top 5 players of all time
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Published 12/09/2023 at 19:17 GMT
Ronnie O'Sullivan may be the world No. 1, but he hopes that a young player will emerge from the younger generation to take over the sport and dominate to the extent that Max Verstappen currently does in Formula 1. He believes a standout player can inspire fans to tune in, hoping to see if someone can match or beat the sport's best. O'Sullivan also named his top 5 snooker players of all time.
O'Sullivan defeats Carter to reach Shanghai quarters
Ronnie O’Sullivan has revealed his wish for snooker to generate its own Max Verstappen to dominate the game, while also revealing his top 5 players of all time.
O’Sullivan, the current snooker world No. 1, is currently in China where on Tuesday he reached the quarter-finals of the Shanghai Masters with a 6-3 win over Ali Carter.
Next up for O'Sullivan will be John Higgins, who O'Sullivan named - following a question from the press - as one of his top 5 players in the game's storied history.
Compiling his full top 5, O'Sullivan said: “Stephen Hendry, No. 1. Steve Davis, No. 2. Joe Davis, No. 3. Ray Reardon, No. 4. John Higgins. No. 5,” before joking: “I don’t name myself.”
He was then asked about the young players coming through at the moment, and he suggested that for all the talent on the scene, there was no player who stood out against the rest.
“There’s some great young players, everybody’s about as good as each other, there’s no standout player. When Stephen Hendry and Steve Davis were around, they were so much better than everyone else,” he answered.
“It was easy to pick one, now there’s maybe five, 10, 15 players all as good as each other.”
O’Sullivan suggested that there needs to be a player who can lead the way, much like current Formula 1 champion Verstappen is doing at Red Bull.
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O'Sullivan makes break of 99 to extend lead against Carter
He explained: “I think the sport needs someone, I think the sport is always more exciting if one player can dominate. Everyone wants to see that player lose. But at the moment there isn’t really one player dominating.
“There’s many, many good players, there are some very good players from Belgium. Ben Mertens is good, obviously Luca [Brecel] winning the World Championship. China has many, many good players. Si Jiahui played fantastic in the World Championship, great talent, great player.
"It’d be nice to see one of them really dominate.
“Every sport needs one, like Verstappen, he's winning everything, people just want to see 'is he going to lose today?'. People want to watch the real dominant players to see if somebody can beat them. Snooker needs one of them.”
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