The Rockets don't quit, Little can't become the new king, and the radish wizard Selby sees "surpassing the Rockets" as a career goal. In the first round of the Players' Championship, in a recently concluded match, the 46-year-old Rodio Sullivan defeated the 33-year-old Trump 6-3 to avenge the "7-9 defeat to the opponent in the Northern Ireland Open final for three consecutive years". In this battle, the Rockets carried the pressure of multiple consecutive defeats against each other to shoot 100 and 5 50+.
After the match, the Sunday Express, a local media outlet in the United States, recently compared the achievements of the two in their respective careers. Although the Rockets won 20 ranking titles slightly lower than Little's 22 before the age of 33, the former's 20 titles included three World Championships, while Little had only one (2019 18-9 beat Higgins); and up to 11 of Little's 20 ranking championships were won in the last two seasons (2019, 2020). In addition to his own hard training, these 11 championships have benefited from the confidence he brought about by beating them in the same tournament final three times in a row against the Rockets.
Wrapped around Higgins, Neil Robertson, Selby and all of Selby's top players have made "beating and surpassing O'Sullivan" the highest goal of their careers. In other words, all players can build up the belief from "beat O'Sullivan" and use it to rule the snooker arena. Selby, who won his first World Championship in 2014, began his career and was locked in the year-end world No. 1 for seven consecutive years. Higgins has also recently reached the final four times this season thanks to five consecutive defeats over O'Sullivan.
Although the record between Terre and O'Sullivan prevailed, with 15 wins and 13 losses in 28 matches, this should not be used as a criterion for judging the level of the two, because you can't compare a 46-year-old who has passed the peak with a 33-year-old who is in the middle of his current year. Moreover, if Trump wants to be or reach the level of historical king of O'Sullivan, he must have the ability to make others think of him as a career goal. In other words, he needs to win enough of the three major titles, especially the World Championships.
The media mentioned many times in the article: Whether you admit it or not, the number of world championships and the number of three major competitions are the only yardstick to measure whether a player can step into the ranks of greatness and test his true strength. For example, when we introduce a player, we mostly prefix it with "World Championship Champion or Runner-up". When most people think of Old White, he is a six-time runner-up winner of the World Championships, not a 10-time ranking champion.
The Rockets currently have 6+7+7 in three major competitions, accumulating 20, and even in the uncompetitive 90s, billiards emperor Hendry only got a total of 18. The number of small special three competitions is 1+1+1. Leaving aside these "hardware", in terms of the charm and popularity of the game, The Little, who is at its peak, is still unable to compete with the 46-year-old O'Sullivan. Because O'Sullivan's single-shot ability and unique personality charm are beyond the way Xiaote can copy or catch up.
The era of the Rockets has not faded, he is still regarded as the most popular player by the audiences of the major stadiums, and if He wants to take the scepter from him, he will have to wait until he retires. (Code words are very annoying, please click to pay attention to moisturizer AB)