Ronnie “The Rocket” O’Sullivan is in the news again, and again for all the wrong reasons.
Pic and link: worldsnooker.com
O’Sullivan was playing Jamie O’Neill in the first round of the World Snooker English Open, the first leg of the Home Nations Series and his behaviour has been described as erratic, disgraceful, disrespectful… and more.
He obviously wasn’t at his best as he lost the first two frames, and was looking more and more disinterested as the match progressed. But, as usual, his genius shone through as he took the next two frames with breaks of 90 and 102.
However, during an attempt to position himself for a long pot, he had to change rests from the normal one to the extending one. Instead of simply handing the rest back to the referee, Rob Spencer, O’Sullivan simply threw it to the floor. After the shot, instead of picking it up and passing it to the ref, or at least giving the ref time to pick it up, he kicked it under the table.
Not the kind of behaviour you would expect from a professional sportsman taking part in a gentlemanly sport like snooker – especially on TV!
O’Sullivan has been promoting his book ‘Top of Your Game‘ recently and has been speaking openly about mental health issues. This kind of behaviour might not actually be a good advert, but they do say that ‘No publicity is bad publicity’.
Another important question is whether or not Rob Spencer should have given O’Sullivan a warning for Ungentlemanly Conduct, which is covered in the rules.
As well as the incident with the rest, there was at least one more that could be described in that way.
Although the frame was safe, O’Sullivan snookered himself on the blue with the pink, which he then potted, which is, of course, a deliberate foul. The question is, would some referees have had a word with other players?
Many a snooker fan is of the opinion that referees are intimidated by O’Sullivan and possibly don’t dare challenge him.
Jamie O’Neill won the fifth frame but O’Sullivan won the final two frames with breaks of 54 and 81 to win 4-3.