Since Ronnie has beaten Mark Selby in the semi-finals of the 2020 World Championship, things have been a bit tense between the two. Ahead of tonight’s match, Ronnie reflects on their semi-final last August and Mark’s response to the defeat.

Here he is speaking to Eurosport:

MASTERS SNOOKER 2021: ‘HE’LL NEVER GET OVER IT’ – RONNIE O’SULLIVAN ‘SHOCKED’ BY MARK SELBY REACTION

Ronnie O’Sullivan and Mark Selby could collide in the 47th Masters final in Milton Keynes on Sunday in the latest epic chapter of snooker’s fiercest rivalry. Speaking exclusively to Eurosport, world champion O’Sullivan feels Selby will “never get over” losing 17-16 in their rousing Crucible semi-final last August, a match that gave him the platform to lift a sixth title in Sheffield.

Ronnie O’Sullivan has revealed he is “really shocked” at how much his epic 17-16 World Championship semi-final win over fierce rival Mark Selby last August appears to have “hurt” and “scarred” the three-times Crucible champion.

Selby – world champion in 2014, 2016 and 2017 – accused O’Sullivan of being “disrespectful“ to him and the sport by hitting the balls at pace and hoping for the best when escaping from snookers during a taut 33-frame contest behind closed doors in Sheffield.

“I felt he was being a bit disrespectful to me and the game, not many players would just get down and hit them at 100mph when you put them in a snooker,” said Selby in the immediate aftermath.

Despite his objections, the method in the madness all worked out like a dream for the sport’s greatest player, who recovered from trailing 16-14 to reel off three rapid frames with lovely knocks of 138, 71 and 64 sealing a memorable victory over three gruelling days.

It should also be noted that O’Sullivan’s approach was not a revelation as he had vowed to avoid another tactical battle with Selby after he commented in June: “I’m just going to blast them open, I’m not getting sucked into eight or nine frames of 50-minute frames, because it destroys you.”

The Essex man collected his sixth World Championship with an 18-8 victory over Kyren Wilson to equal Steve Davis and Ray Reardon’s record, but admits he has been baffled by Selby’s reaction to the semi-final.

The pair were embroiled in more controversy during the Scottish Open final last month that saw Selby complete a 9-3 win to equal Stephen Hendry’s haul of 11 straight victories in ranking event finals during the 1990s.

The contest was marred by accusations of gamesmanship from both men with Selby claiming O’Sullivan was chalking his cue to distract him early in the match and the counter argument being made that Selby’s water bottle was proving a nuisance between shots.

Selby – the only man to defeat O’Sullivan in the World, Masters and UK finals – has also aimed a few light-hearted barbs at O’Sullivan for lamenting his cue tips and cue action in recent months.

“You know what, after playing Selby at the last tournament, I’ve realised that semi-final really has hurt him,” commented O’Sullivan. “I didn’t realise at the time. I thought: ‘It’s just a game, he’s lost a semi-final. No big deal, he’ll probably come back and win it another time’.

“But when I watched his interview after that match, I could really see he was hurt. He was just focused on two shots out of a 33-frame match. He’s forgotten the 33 frames and just focused on two balls.”

I THINK THAT HAS SCARRED HIM IN A WAY. I DON’T THINK HE’LL EVER GET OVER THAT BECAUSE I THINK HE THINKS THAT IS ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP HE LOST THAT HE CAN NEVER GET BACK.

“Even if he goes and wins it another one or two times, that match will still be in his head,” said O’Sullivan, who begins his campaign for a record eighth Masters title against 2011 winner Ding Junhui at the Marshall Arena on Wednesday afternoon.

“That’s one I think he thought he definitely had won. The way he’s been recently, and some of the things he’s said, that has definitely bothered him so much more than I ever thought it would.

I WAS REALLY SHOCKED TO BE HONEST WITH YOU, BUT HE OBVIOUSLY HAS TO DEAL WITH THAT IN HIS OWN WAY.

Selby begins his quest for a fourth Masters triumph against Stephen Maguire on Tuesday evening in the game’s biggest invitational event.

O’Sullivan watched a player he once dubbed ‘The Torturer’ recover from trailing 10-5 to deny him a sixth world title with an 18-14 win in 2014 that gave the ‘Jester from Leicester’ his first.

Rocket Ronnie does not think he was guaranteed victory after watching Selby produce a similar recovery against four-times world champion John Higgins in the 2017 final from 10-4 adrift.

“People will say that 2014 final was probably one that got away, but then he did that to Higgins,” said O’Sullivan.

“People have come to expect now that Selby is probably a better player when he is four or five frames down.

“He’s more dangerous in a way because there is a shift in his approach. I lost in 2014, but I never thought that I should have won that one.

“I still knew at 10-5 that there was still a long way to go. I think I missed a black at 10-5 and thought: ‘God, that could come back to haunt me.’

“At 10-5 up against most players, you miss a ball and it’s probably not the end of the world, but he’s made of tougher stuff.”

I think that Ronnie is right here, and he would know because, let’s be honest, he was deeply hurt by the way he lost in 2014, and it affected him for years at the Crucible. He had allowed himself to be dragged into a type of game that doesn’t suit him and lost a match he had dominated at first.

Last August, he didn’t allow that to happen, and it’s Selby who found himself dragged into a type of game that doesn’t suit him, and he too lost having be in front for almost the whole match.

Similar situations … similar impact.

Ronnie resckons that Judd Trump is now at the same level as Stephen Hendry and John Higgins intheir prime.

He spoke to Phil Haigh:

Ronnie O’Sullivan: Judd Trump has joined elite group of my toughest opponents

Phil Haigh 

Friday 8 Jan 2021 12:44 pm

Ronnie O’Sullivan rates Judd Trump as one of the three toughest opponents he has ever faced on the snooker table, alongside Stephen Hendry and John Higgins.

Trump has established himself as the most potent force in the game, riding high as world number one since winning the 2019 World Championship and continuing to rack up ranking titles since then.

He may no longer be the world champion, or hold any of the Triple Crown titles in fact, but the 31-year-old’s continued excellence leaves little question that he is the finest player on the planet.

O’Sullivan has been beaten by Trump on each of their last three encounters and the Rocket now classes him alongside two of the all-time greats of the baize.

‘He’s at that level where Hendry and Higgins were,’ O’Sullivan told Metro.co.uk.

‘Judd’s definitely in that bracket. I’ve played them all and I’ve always said Hendry and Higgins are the two hardest opponents I’ve had.

‘In terms of snooker ability, their ability to just out-play you and if you don’t play to that level, they don’t drop to your level. They just keep their level very, very high.

‘Higgins and Hendry were the only two players I put in that bracket but now definitely Judd is in there. He’s playing to a very, very high standard a lot of the time.’

While most consider O’Sullivan the finest player the sport has ever seen, with Hendry his closest competitor, there has also been plenty of talk of Trump taking snooker to a new level.

Hendry himself has claimed that Trump can produce shots that the rest of the players in the game simply cannot, thanks largely to his immense cue power and unique technique.

‘Some of the shots, they are shots that only Judd Trump can play, he’s got such an advantage over the rest of the tour,’ Hendry said as Trump powered to his World Championship win.

Given his status in the game and genius on the table, it may seem strange to O’Sullivan that it is suggested Trump can do things with a cue that he cannot.

The reigning world champion does dispute the suggestion that he couldn’t pull off certain shots, but hails Trump’s consistency with them and confidence to take them on when most wouldn’t.

‘It’s not that you can’t play them,’ said Ronnie. ‘You could probably play them, but it’s like a golfer who can drive the ball 380 yards, but he only drives it 320 to keep the accuracy.

‘You might be able to play a shot Judd plays, but you’ll be on your limit every time, whereas I think Judd isn’t on his limit.

‘So he’s playing these shots and you just think “wow” because if you were to do it, nine times out of 10 you’d get it wrong and the odd time you’d get it right.

‘Whereas Judd is getting it right eight times out of 10 and the odd time it will go wrong. He has this ability to create spin and power that nobody else can.’

The Rocket feels Trump is uniquely dangerous in almost any situaion thanks to his immense potting ability and willingness to take on aggressive shots.

His incredible talent means that you never feel safe, even when balls appear to be safe, or you have a big lead in a match.

‘You get to the point where you’re sitting in your chair and there might be nothing on but you have to accept that he’s probably the only player that could have cleared up the table in five minutes’ time,’ explained the 45-year-old. ‘That makes him very, very dangerous.

‘If you do create a lead, like Neil Robertson did at the English Open, 7-4 up playing fantastic snooker, he just found another gear, four frames from nowhere because he can just out-play you, without you doing anything wrong.’

Trump would go on to win that English Open final 9-8 against the man who O’Sullivan considers the only one capable of competing with Trump at the moment.

‘Hendry and Higgins are the only other players that had that ability to out-play you like that,’ said Ronnie. ‘But Judd’s put his own spin, his own brand on doing it.

‘Whereas Hendry would out-score and out-pot you which was phenomenal, Higgins would out-play you with all his safety, shut you out for hours and hours, but Judd is somewhere in between.

‘He’ll score well, pot well, you’ll still get your chances against him, but if you don’t take them you don’t get another chance.

‘That’s what Hendry was like, you got chances, but if you didn’t take them you didn’t see another ball and you knew he was going to clear up. So when someone brings that to the table, you know you have to perform, be very clinical and play a good all round game.

‘Neil Robertson is capable of it, he’s the only other one at the moment who can play flawless snooker and if he does then he’s got a chance against Judd because he’s not making any mistakes.’

Trump and O’Sullivan are in action at the Masters in the coming week, with Trump taking on Dave Gilbert on Sunday and O’Sullivan facing Ding Junhui on Wednesday

Regarding Judd’s ability to create spin, I remember Ronnie speaking about it on Eurosport some time earlier this season. Basically what he said was that Judd’s cue action is unorthodox. He seems to be cueing across on most shots. But obviously he still gets the balls where he wants them to be. His gesture is such that he “whips” the ball whilst hitting it, abit like one does to get a spin top going. The result is that he’s able to create a lot of spin and still be acurate. No coach would recommend such cue action, but it works wonder for Judd.

Judd is not the only top player with an unorthodox cue action. Jimmy White is another one. Of course, Jimmy is no more at the top, but his cue action hasn’t really changed. He seems to aim very low in the white and across as well. Then, when he delivers the shot, he actually strikes higher and closer to the center. And when playing with power, he also “whips” the ball.

As much as he had enough of Milton Keynes before Christmas, Ronnie will play in the 2021 Masters, and, speaking to Phil Haigh, he explained why. He didn’t miss it last year, but he feels that a too long post-Christmas break may have impacted his game negatively last season.

Regarding the crowd, he’s a bit in two minds. He appreciates to be able to concentrate solely on his snooker, without all the demands, and sometimes hassle, coming from the fans and the media, but, on the other hand, he reckons that he may need the pressure generated by the fans’ expectations to be able to perform at his best.

Here is the interview:

Ronnie O’Sullivan reveals the reason behind Masters return as he longs for return of crowds

Phil HaighWednesday 6 Jan 2021 1:00 pm

Ronnie O’Sullivan is back at the Masters this year after skipping the 2020 event, feeling that decision cost him his form and rhythm at the start of last year.

The Rocket disappointed his fans by sitting out last year’s Masters and choosing to work as a pundit for Eurosport during the event instead.

Pulling out allowed Ali Carter to step in and the Captain made it all the way to the final, where he was beaten by Stuart Bingham at Alexandra Palace.

O’Sullivan had suggested that he would sit out the Masters again this year, having complained about dealing with the crowds, the media obligations and pressure to sort out tickets for people.

However, he is back and will take on Ding Junhui on 13 January at the Marshall Arena, Milton Keynes, when he will look to win his first tournament since lifting the World Championship title in August.

The 45-year-old feels that missing the Masters, along with the Christmas break and not travelling to Europe at the start of 2020 really cost him in terms of form, and he is eager not to make the same mistake again.

‘I don’t know because I didn’t miss it last year,’ O’Sullivan told Metro.co.uk of his decision to return to the Masters.

‘I just think, I was playing well towards the end of last year and I probably would have done okay at the Masters if I’d have played.

‘Then I missed that and I was looking forward to playing but I missed the German [Masters], I missed the Austrian Open [European Masters] so I ended up not playing for six or seven weeks.

‘Then when I did come back I was still playing well but I was so off the pace that it took me two tournaments to feel like a player again and get back where I was in December.

‘So I thought, rather than that happen again, let’s just try and carry some momentum forward and now I’ve got four or five tournaments to play before the World Championships so that’s enough for me.’

O’Sullivan made no secret of the fact that he preferred the World Championship in 2020 with no crowd at the Crucible for the majority of the tournament, due to the added stress of dealing with fans at events.

He also claims this has been a big problem for him at the Masters in the past.

‘For this year’s [2020] World Championships, there was no visitors, no guests, no one at the stage door, I could get in and out of Sheffield and I’ve never felt so relaxed there in my life,’ O’Sullivan told Pete Cohen’s Mi365 Podcast. ‘It wasn’t snooker, it was the stuff that surrounds certain tournaments. That was the reason I didn’t play in the Masters, because it’s a huge circus there.

‘London, the Masters is a no-no for me, if I never played in that again I wouldn’t be disappointed.’

O’Sullivan still appreciates the simplicity of a tournament at which he only needs to play snooker and do little else, but the months without fans at events appears to have changed his tune.

The world champion has played in more than enough behind closed doors events and is looking forward to the return of crowds as soon as possible.

‘It allows me to just go there and play snooker, enjoy it, it simplifies it I guess,’ he explained. ‘The Masters, the UK Championships, the World Championships, a lot of people want to come watch, you end up having to deal with stuff you don’t want to deal with. So this makes it all easier.

‘But I think it would have been nice to have a crowd, I think we need a crowd.

‘Some players have really adapted to it well, but I think it’s nice to play in front of an audience, it’s been a while now so looking forward to at some point getting a crowd back in.’

O’Sullivan not only wants a crowd for the return of an atmosphere at events and the excitement that brings, but he feels it will help his performances.

The Rocket won his sixth world title last summer in impressive fashion, but he is yet to get his hands on another trophy since then.

He has impressed at times, reaching two finals, but also turned in some below-par performances at the Marshall Arena, where tournaments have been held this season.

The world number three has spoken before about how the fear of failure has driven him on to succeed, something he doesn’t really feel at this stage of his career.

With that motivation disappearing, and without the intensity of a crowd, he feels his game has suffered.

‘I obviously have a lot less to prove, I don’t have anything to prove,’ Ronnie explained. ‘But I think with that loss of fear, I’ve always said that fear drove me on to want to play well and to put the extra hours in, to devote myself to snooker.

‘When you do that you get such tunnel vision and for the last five years I haven’t had that approach.

‘It’s worked for me, in a way, I’ve been much more relaxed, but I think you get to the point where maybe that intensity isn’t there enough of the time.

‘I don’t know if it’s lack of crowds but I just feel like I’m missing the odd ball I wasn’t missing before. Against 95% of the tour I might get away with it, but the three guys: Neil Robertson, Judd Trump and Mark Selby, I’m just not going to get away with it against them.

‘Against all the other guys I will and have got away with it but If I’m to compete with them three then I’ve got to erase them errors.

‘Maybe crowds coming back might change that I don’t know. It is harder for certain players to play in front of no crowd, sometimes you need that bit of pressure to kick you into gear.’