O'Sullivan: Higgins, Brother Robin, Robertson are above me, Trump is 5th; It feels strange that the little is 5th.
A week ago, the current world third O'Sullivan, who had reached the final of the Northern Ireland Open for three consecutive years, was intercepted by Chinese tiger Yan Bingtao 3-4 in the 16-8 match of this tournament, and had no chance to meet Trump in the final of the same tournament for the fourth consecutive time as scheduled. However, Trump also failed to reach the final, losing to Mark Allen in the quarter-finals.
After leaving the game, O'Sullivan praised Yan Bingtao as a player with the characteristics of a major championship in his visit to Eurosport, but in addition, when talking about snooker's current situation and past, he believes that he is not the best. At least in some respects, not as good as Higgins, Karen Wilson, and Neil Robertson. He ranked himself 4th in all time and Trump in 5th place.
As he grew older, O'Sullivan had different interpretations and perceptions of snooker at different ages. He will now treat every tournament he participates in with a more "relaxed" or even "ignored" attitude. This is enough to find some clues from the process of his defeat against Yan Bingtao. When he trailed 2-3 and was overpowered by a single 71 inning, he scored a gripping classic clearance in front of the audience after winning the FARSce mobile session. His 73-pointer gave the fans and many viewers in front of the TV set a glimpse of the familiar Rockets — he wanted to win the game and was determined.
But he quickly played at will in the decider, and in the Anglobal Reconciliation Snooker were full of holes, which is obviously very different from the previous game, and I believe that any professional player in the decider will never be cynical in that situation. The signal he released was that he participated in this game completely with paid practice, the right thing to play, to see the victory and defeat very lightly. Based on this, perhaps this is the reason why he thinks he is not the best.
Of course, there are other reasons. The Rockets put Higgins at the top of the list because he thought he had a unique playing temperament, especially in the ability to "defend" and "clear the stage" and "deal with chaos". The Rockets put Karen Wilson in second place because Karen knew better than herself how to rest. Robertson was placed third because Robertson was deeply accomplished in the accuracy of the far stage. He ranked himself in No. 4, and oddly enough, rockets, which had always regarded Trump as their successor, put him behind him. Maybe it's because they have too much in common.