They’ve all gone snooker loopy at The Crucible this year
Mark Selby leaves Sheffield with a lot of regrets and far from pleased with the man that ended his world championship hopes.
Two 17-16 semi-finals, a stack of tension and great snooker and nearly every player shooting from the hip when they see a TV camera. The World Snooker Championships is getting lots of eyeballs this year and not just for the action on the tables.
Kyren Wilson edged past Anthony McGill in a nail-biting semi and he was then joined by Ronnie O’Sullivan after ‘The Rocket’ came back from 13-9 and 16-14 down to beat Mark Selby 17-16.
Following his defeat, Selby delivered an extremely salty interview to Eurosport, during which he accused O’Sullivan of being “disrespectful” and of moving in the background while he taking his shots.
“I felt great,” Selby reflected. “I felt like I was going to clear up, just played a poor positional shot on the green. I played some good safety shots but Ronnie kept getting out of them.
“During the match I felt like it was a little bit disrespectful the way he played, every time I got him in a snooker he just got down and hit the balls 100 miles an hour and could have gone anywhere.
“I don’t know if he was just in that frame of mind,” Selby added. “But I felt it was a little disrespectful to me at the table, but last three frames he played great, I’ve got no complaints.
“Not reckless, just disrespectful to me. Sometimes if you’ve got no shot you get down and hit them as hard as you can and hope you fluke one.
“But every time I had one in a snooker, even if he had a chance to roll on a ball, he’d just come off the cushion. I think it’s disrespectful to the game and disrespectful to me in that particular match.”
Selby spoke about a moment in the 23rd frame when he was lining up a long red into the green pocket. The Leicester native claims O’Sullivan started to move, in his eye-line, as he was taking the shot.
“I had a chance to go 14-9 [up]… I’m about to play and he’s put his cue next to his seat and stood up in his chair while I’m playing my shot, right in my eye-line. Obviously people just don’t do that, you see, but whether he was trying to do mind games or not, I don’t know, but Ronnie’s Ronnie and he does them things.”
As for O’Sullivan, he reasoned that he is not good at getting out of snookers and would prefer to take his chances by going hard at the balls.
O’Sullivan says he is ‘not confident’ about the prospect if playing in front of a crowd for the final. Organisers are going to invite in limited numbers for the final, but the Liverpudlian is not in favour of the move.
