O'Sullivan, who was swept 5-0 by Waffy in the German Masters qualifiers, missed the European Masters qualifiers this week and will play in the English Open, which starts on November 1.
Although he was not participating for the time being, O'Sullivan still judged the current snooker players, pointing out that the current top players are divided into two gears, one is Selby, Trump, Robertson, and the other is O'Sullivan, Higgins and Mark Williams, and the reason for putting these three together is age, just because of age. It turned out that in O'Sullivan's eyes, the real top players were only these 6 people.
In December, O'Sullivan will turn 46, and mark Williams and Higgins, the same age as him, have already celebrated their 46th birthdays. In O'Sullivan's eyes, the three were also born in 1975, also turned professional in the 1992 season, and still have a certain degree of competitiveness, so it is best to put it in a gear. O'Sullivan also compared the three to tennis players Federer and Nadal, noting that although they are no longer at their peak, they are still able to compete at the top level.
O'Sullivan said: "Because at my age, if I win an event, or at least devote myself to it, it will take me three or four days to get back to being able to play again. Maybe seven or eight years ago, I could have won the world championship, and then the next day I would wake up and I'd think I could win again. As we age, there is no ability to focus or sustainably. So I think Selby, Trump and Robertson are at their peak and once you get to 43, 44, it gets worse.
Teacher Huo mentioned that this was the real problem faced by the three people of 75 Sanjie, but he did not know how long this situation would continue. He thinks Selby, Trump and Robertson are in the first gear of the top players simply because of their age, not because of their ability to play, but because they are able to concentrate and recover much better than O'Sullivan, Williams or Higgins in game after game.
O'Sullivan also said that the World Championships remain the most important event, the pinnacle. O'Sullivan said the three major tournaments are all big, the most stressful, and the top players usually thrive here, and they never change. It's a bit like golf's four Grand Slam tournaments, where you can rate the achievements of Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods based on the number of champions.
Although about to turn 46, O'Sullivan is ambitious, "I'm probably going to win one World Championship instead of winning five regular events, because there's only one World Championship." ”
In this week's German Masters qualifiers, O'Sullivan faced Wafi and was swept 5-0 after only 54 minutes. Waffy scored 52, 50, 81, 64 and 141 points. O'Sullivan also lost his qualification for the German Masters next January. The last time O'Sullivan was swept 5-0 was in Scotland in 2017, when he lost to Higgins. Mark Williams also missed the European Masters because of his COVID-19 positives.