'Talent-wise he is up there' - Allan McManus says Ronnie O'Sullivan on a par with Lionel Messi and Roger Federer
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Published 17/04/2022 at 20:49 GMT
Ronnie O'Sullivan is bidding for a seventh World Championship and got his campaign up and running with victory over David Gilbert in the first round. Win or lose he is one of the greatest of all time, and Allan McManus rates him highly. Watch the World Championship and other top snooker live on Eurosport and discovery+.
'He needed this' - O'Sullivan produces brilliant break of 109 to take a two-frame lead
Alan McManus feels Ronnie O’Sullivan is one of the most talented sports people to have lived, on a par with Lionel Messi and Roger Federer.
O’Sullivan got his World Championship campaign up and running with a 10-5 win over David Gilbert in the first round.
Tougher tests lie ahead as O’Sullivan bids for a seventh world title at the age of 46, but he is ticking along nicely.
Irrespective of whether he wins a seventh world title to draw level with Stephen Hendry, O’Sullivan is arguably the greatest to play the game and McManus feels he compares favourably with the superstars of the sporting world.
“He is one of the best I have ever seen, largely because I know how difficult snooker is,” McManus said in the Eurosport studio at the Crucible in Sheffield.
“I am always biased, but let’s take golf. You are not playing against anybody else. You are playing against a score on a card.
“You have to exchange shots with Ronnie and watch him doing what he does, and what he can do is different from anybody in the history of the game.
“Talent-wise he is up there with probably the top half-dozen gifted sports people ever.
"In terms of pure gifts, to do things that someone can’t do - like Messi can do, like Federer can do and those guys, he is incredible.”
Jimmy White had huge natural talent and wowed fans in the 1980s and 1990s, but he too is in awe of O’Sullivan and feels he does not get the recognition he deserves.
“It is incredible,” White said. “The way he plays the game, he makes it look so natural and so easy.
“World Championships in three different decades, still the man to beat at 46 years of age. He is back to world No. 1.
I don’t know who does these votes on Sports Personality of the Year, but he should have won it by now.”
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Watch the World Championship and other top snooker live on Eurosport and discovery+.
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