The schedule of the “ITV events” is always a bit peculiar and we had just one session, two matches, yesterday evening: Neil Robertson beat Kyren Wilson by 6-4 whilst Mark Williams beat Gary Wilson by 6-3 from 0-2 down.

Here is the report by WST:

Winning Start For Robertson And Williams

Neil Robertson came through a tough battle with Kyren Wilson by a 6-4 scoreline on day one of the Cazoo Players Championship in Wolverhampton, while Mark Williams beat Gary Wilson 6-3.

Robertson’s preparations for this week have been far from ideal, having tested positive for Covid-19 after travelling back from Berlin following the recent German Masters. He then underwent a period of isolation.

Despite still feeling under par, the Australian remains full of confidence having scored a landmark second Masters victory at Alexandra Palace last month. He defeated Barry Hawkins 10-4 in the final to capture the Paul Hunter Trophy.

Wilson came into today’s encounter having enjoyed a good record against Robertson of late. The Kettering cueman had won four of their previous five meetings, but it was 21-time ranking event Robertson who cranked up the heat early on this evening.

Breaks of 114 and 60 helped Robertson into a 2-1 lead. He then doubled his advantage heading into the mid-session, after claiming the fourth on the black to lead 3-1.

The Warrior battled his way back into the tie when play resumed, taking two on the bounce to restore parity at 3-3. Robertson responded with 94 to take the seventh, before Wilson fired in a tournament high run of 141 to make it 4-4.

A break of exactly 100 moved Robertson a frame from the win. He then unlocked the path to victory in the 10^th frame with a superb shot on the green to develop the brown. From there the Melbourne cueist completed a clearance to the black with a break of 47 to win 6-4.

World number four Robertson now faces the mouth watering prospect of a quarter-final clash with either Judd Trump or Ronnie O’Sullivan.

“I thought I played really well. I had a couple of missed balls, but I felt overall the standard from myself was decent,” said 39-year-old Robertson.

“It was lucky that this tournament was a few days after I came out from isolation. The form is still there from the Masters, I feel great and confidence is high. You can clearly see I’m hitting the ball well. I got a few days practising and that put me in the form I needed to put in a decent performance.

“Even if I am still showing signs of any kind of tiredness, playing Ronnie or Judd is the perfect match. The frames will be over so quickly and I will get good chances with it being against attacking players. It is going to be a good crowd so there won’t be many flat moments in the match and that will also suit me. I am free rolling a little bit at the moment.”

Williams rallied from 2-0 down to secure his 6-3 defeat of Wilson and earn a quarter-final spot.

The Welshman has been in superb form so far this season. Today’s win was a repeat of the British Open final earlier in the campaign, where he defeated Wilson 6-4 to claim the 24^th ranking crown of his career.

Williams was edged out 6-5 by Robertson in a thrilling Masters semi-final last month and followed that up with a run to the Shoot Out final, where he was beaten by Hossein Vafaei.

The three-time World Champion wasn’t at his fluent best this evening, failing to compose a break over 50, but three frames on the bounce from 3-3 were enough to seal the victory.

Next up Williams faces either Mark Allen or Ricky Walden in the quarter-finals.

Altough Neil feels that he is in good form, this actually didn’t show immediately at the table. There were lots of mistakes from both him and Kyren before the MSI.

The conditions looked very tricky to say the least and that was confirmed by this bit of conversation between the two winners on twitter:

Table 1 was also rolling off from left to right (as seen on our screens). This was very apparent on some “slow” safety shots Neil played: he ended up hitting his target on the wrong side a couple of times.

We have four matches today. Ronnie will play tonight and it’s fair to say that from all the “top seeds” he’s the one that has been handed the toughest task as he will face Judd Trump.

He was interviewed by Hector Nunns for “The sportsman”

Ronnie O’Sullivan: New Sensation Zhao Xintong Has Snooker At His Mercy

“Of course, you have to say ‘Could be’ at the moment, it is still early, he has got quite a bit to learn and master to be the full article. He is super-good now, but could be an unplayable great if he were to brush up on certain things. And that is up to him, does he want to be open to that, and do the work.

“Because Zhao can be as good as he wants to be, he has got the game in his hands. As he develops he will handle the pressure situations even better than now. Even though he is a little bit one-dimensional now with all the potting and fantastic break-building, his defensive game can improve and that will make him better again.

“What is scary for the rest is what he is doing with only half a game – because I think that is what he has, half a game, compared to his potential. He still manages to brush other players aside, but that is only because he is so talented. But he can become even more difficult to play against and boss games from the start.

“There aren’t that many players that have a chance of threatening the important records – Hendry’s seven world titles, my seven Masters and UKs, the 20 majors. He is maybe the only one out there who could topple some of those. I watched his win at the German Masters, and was following what was going on. I have a real soft spot for Zhao.

“And in many wany he reminds me of my son – I look at him and it is like he is a reflection of my little Ronnie – a couple of handsome, good-looking boys! But of course the main thing is his talent, and the way he can play the game. It is exciting to watch, and exciting to see someone that emerges.”

Meanwhile, as far as O’Sullivan’s own first test in the tournament is concerned, it couldn’t be much tougher. Trump’s relatively poor campaign to date is responsible for this clash materialising as early in the tournament as it has, with O’Sullivan seeded third and the 32-year-old only 14th.

Since this tournament was rebranded in 2017 from the Players Tour Championship that preceded it and made for the top 16 on the one-year list, O’Sullivan and Trump have each won two of the five to have been staged – the Rocket also losing 10-3 in last year’s final to John Higgins.

Trump has beaten Marco Fu (10-8 in 2017) and Yan Bingtao (10-4 in 2020) in finals, while O’Sullivan has taken out Shaun Murphy (10-4 in 2018) and Neil Robertson (also 10-4 in 2019) in his other showpieces.

Trump is one of the few to hold a winning career head to head record against O’Sullivan, including eight of the 11 finals they have contested – and has also won five of their last six meetings.

O’Sullivan said: “Look, I am just happy to be in the draw the way I have been playing. My performances recently haven’t been great so I am looking forward to another road trip. It would be nice to get a few days out of it, rather than go up Monday and be heading home Tuesday night.

“So I would like to stay involved for a few days. I have got some nice running routes planned up there. Me against Judd in the first round…if the fans and the TV look forward to it, then that’s fantastic! For me I’ll be having some fun and hope to make a game of it.”

Ronnie is of course aware that his form hasn’t been the best in competitive matches so far this season, despite winning the 2021 World Grand Prix just before the Christmas break but the same is true for Judd as well.

David Hendon has been reflecting on their rivalry:

PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP: EARLY RONNIE O’SULLIVAN MATCH HIGHLIGHTS JUDD TRUMP’S TRICKY ROAD TO RECLAIMING SNOOKER’S THRONE

The match could easily have been a final, but Judd Trump meets Ronnie O’Sullivan in the first round of the Cazoo Players Championship because the former is 14th on the one-year list used to determine the 16-man field. Eurosport commentator Dave Hendon looks at the challenges facing Trump as he copes with multiple challengers, including the longevity of O’Sullivan, John Higgins and Mark Williams.

By DAVE HENDON

When Judd Trump meets Ronnie O’Sullivan in the first round of the Cazoo Players Championship on Tuesday night it marks the latest chapter of a rivalry between two authentic crowd-pleasers.

A match-up which could easily have been a final, they are clashing in the first round because Trump is 14th on the one-year list used to determine the 16-man field. This season he has so far failed to get past the quarter-finals of a ranking event, although he did win the prestigious Champion of Champions last November.

Trump and Mark Selby have been trading the world No 1 position this season but, with Selby absent from the field, O’Sullivan will return to top spot for the first time in three years if he wins the title.

When he was starting out, the forty-somethings were great players of their day on the slide – the likes of Dennis Taylor, Terry Griffiths and Cliff Thorburn. Trump may have reasonably expected that the players he idolised as a boy would have seriously declined by now, but there is no sign of that.

Trump is six months from his 33rd birthday and has won 22 ranking titles. At the same age, O’Sullivan had won 20, although there were fewer ranking events back in 2008.

The 20th was his third world title, and this is important to note because, like it or not, snooker careers are ultimately measured by the sport’s biggest event. The World Championship is an examination of skill, stamina and nerve like no other. It defines a snooker player in the public mind for good or bad.

Jimmy White was blessed with genius but is still inevitably introduced as the six times Crucible runner-up rather than by any of the many other titles he won.

Neil Robertson is a modern great but admits he needs to improve on his 2010 world title success to cement his place in the all-time pantheon.

Trump won the title three years ago but has not made it past the quarter-finals since. There is still time, but he faces challenges on three fronts – younger stars emerging, such as Zhao Xintong and Yan Bingtao, the established order represented by Robertson and Selby and the older legends who refuse to lie down, O’Sullivan in particular.

Trump is an extraordinary shot-maker who has instilled iron discipline in his game to become a consistent winner. He deserves more credit than he has generally received for winning the amount of tournaments he has in a relatively short space of time: 14 ranking titles in three seasons, plus the Masters, from 2018 to 2021.

These were not small events, as some detractors like to claim. Seven of them carried first prizes of at least £100,000. None of them were easy to win. His best characteristics – fantastic potting, heavy scoring, shrewd safety play and poise under pressure – came to the fore each time.

The focus and application required to churn out win after win, round after round, is considerable and Trump channelled the mindset of a Steve Davis or Stephen Hendry to go into every event determined to come away as its champion.

In three successive Northern Ireland Open finals, he defeated O’Sullivan. Trump has an overall winning record against him and has won five of their last six meetings. O’Sullivan’s last victory was a 10-9 success on the final black in the 2019 Tour Championship semi-finals. Trump had missed the yellow to win.

Trump’s problem is not beating O’Sullivan, it’s the inevitable career-wide comparisons with him.

The modern metric for success is the ‘triple crown’ of World Championship, UK Championship and Masters, although this is not the historic measure many would have us believe.

Steve Davis would not have recognised the ‘triple crown’. In his day, the new events which counted towards the world rankings were considered majors. At the 1987 Masters, Davis lost in the first round and, when asked why he thought he had only won the tournament once, replied that he possibly did not try as hard as in the ranking events.

The last player to actually complete the triple crown in the same season was Mark Williams in 2002/03, but not much was made of this at the time. However, when Williams also won the other BBC televised event – the LG Cup – at the start of the following season, he was said to have completed the ‘Grand Slam.’ Nothing more has been heard of this since the BBC dropped their fourth event in 2010.

Even so, we are where we are and Trump has so far won the world, UK and Masters titles on one occasion each. This makes him one of only 11 players to have completed the triple crown, but O’Sullivan has won 20 of these titles.

Time and again, O’Sullivan has come good on the big occasion. His very presence in a tournament creates a frisson of excitement. Trump is hugely popular with audiences, especially younger snooker fans, but is yet to develop this aura because O’Sullivan occupies so much of the bandwidth.

Every time it seems the baton has been passed, O’Sullivan wrenches it back. So much of the spotlight is on him that his rivals are often left in the shadows.
The Rocket is snooker’s biggest star, an endlessly fascinating force of nature who has dazzled audiences for 30 years. He can never be written off.

In 2019, Trump outplayed him in the Masters final, won the World Championship and became world No 1. O’Sullivan did little of note the following season while Trump won five ranking titles, but the campaign ended with O’Sullivan winning his sixth world title to great acclaim.

It was a bit like a much-loved actor turning up late on in a play, stealing the final scene and ending the night with a standing ovation.

O’Sullivan belongs to a golden generation, with Williams and John Higgins, born at the height of the UK snooker boom. They learned their trade amid the thriving junior and amateur circuits of Britain and are the game’s true survivors and among its greatest champions.

This holy snooker triumvirate known as the ‘Class of ’92’ are like red wine on a white rug. You can try to scrub them out all you want, but they aren’t shifting.
Since Trump reached his last ranking final 11 months ago, O’Sullivan, Higgins and Williams have between them appeared in seven. O’Sullivan won his 38th ranking title at the World Grand Prix just before Christmas.

Their longevity is remarkable. Higgins, a humble man, said last week he felt he is playing better then he ever has. His capture of the Players Championship last season for the loss of only four frames is exhibit A in the evidence that he may be right.

Whether O’Sullivan is quite the player he was is a matter of opinion, but what isn’t is that he remains the sport’s dominant character, attracting headlines and interest like no other. He is 46 but still plays a youthful game and remains the benchmark for those aspiring to be successful on the green baize.

Trump is in many ways the perfect talisman for snooker: young, talented and positive with a formidable work ethic and genuine desire to grow the game.

But the throne can only truly be his when snooker’s perennial king across the water has abdicated. And Ronnie O’Sullivan shows no signs of going anywhere just yet.

Judd Trump once got cross at me on twitter for saying that there were fewer events to play in when Ronnie was his age. I doubt that he will dare to respond angrily to Dave’s claims the way he did mine because, very simply, we both are stating facts. In 2008 Ronnie played in 8 events, out of the only 10 in the calendar. He won three of them, and got to the final of two others. In terms of percentages that’s as least as good as anything Judd ever did during any season. Judd Trump has won 33 titles – big and small – out of the 287 events he competed in. That’s 11.4%, which is actually remarkable but still very far from the 20.5% win rate by Ronnie  (source: cuetracker)

Today is the last of the 2022 Turkish Masters qualifiers and I will look at the outcome tomorrow. Ronnie won’t be there. Jason Ferguson as head of WPBSA is disappointed by his decision, but accepts it.

Here is a piece by Eurosport explaining both side’s point of view:

‘DISAPPOINTED’ – RONNIE O’SULLIVAN’S TURKISH MASTERS SNUB FAILS TO BRING DELIGHT TO SNOOKER CHIEFS

Ronnie O’Sullivan’s decision to opt out of playing in the inaugural Turkish Masters next month could cost him more money than the appearance fee he was demanding to play in Antalya, according to WPBSA chairman Jason Ferguson. Ferguson has described O’Sullivan’s decision as “disappointing”.

Ronnie O’Sullivan has missed out on the opportunity to cash in by opting out of snooker’s inaugural Turkish Masters in a dispute over appearance money, according to the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association chairman (WPBSA) Jason Ferguson.

The world No. 2 has decided against travelling to the salubrious five-star Nirvana Cosmopolitan Hotel in Antalya next month because he was not offered any extra financial incentive by tournament promoters to participate.

The £500,000 Turkish Masters runs between March 7-13 and is live on Eurosport with a £100,000 winner’s cheque, but that has not been enough to tempt the sport’s biggest draw to board a plane in his 30th year as a professional.

O’Sullivan is the only player in the world’s top 16 to give the event a miss, much to the chagrin of organisers, with former world No. 28 Ferguson lamenting the short-sightedness of the thought process.

“Of course I am disappointed he did not enter and won’t be there. I know Ronnie has a huge number of fans in Turkey,” Ferguson said in an interview with the Sportsman. “And it is disappointing for them that they won’t see him.

“That said, they will be overjoyed with the rest of the players who make the trip, apart from that the entries were amazing – 15 of the top 16.

It sounds a far cry from O’Sullivan’s experience of the 2018 English Open at the K2 Leisure centre in Crawley when he said: “They put me by some toilet and I had to stand there for four or five minutes and all I could smell was urine.

“It was really quite off-putting, no-one wants to be subject to smelling urine.

YOU HAVE TO GO THROUGH THE MAIN FOYER – YOU DON’T WANT TO BE TRAIPSING THROUGH FAMILIES GOING SWIMMING WITH KIDS WITH SNORKELS AND FLIP-FLOPS ON AND YOU’RE ABOUT TO PLAY A MATCH OR TO DO A PRESS CONFERENCE.

Ferguson is adamant the sport has worked hard to improve conditions for the World Snooker Tour and said: “Ronnie has in the past said he doesn’t want to play in leisure centres and wants better venues – this is exactly that.

SO WE HAVE UPPED OUR GAME CONSIDERABLY AND GONE OUT TO PUT SOMETHING WORLD-CLASS ON, AND IT IS DISAPPOINTING HE WON’T BE THERE. I AM LED TO BELIEVE IT HAS GENERATED QUITE A BIT OF COMMENT IN TURKEY ON SOCIAL MEDIA THAT HE IS NOT LEADING THE CHARGE AS A HUGE STAR IN THE SPORT.

“If every top player did the same we might not have any of them there – but they wouldn’t, that’s the point. Top players love winning and competing – as does Ronnie, to be fair. We have some terrific players and people in snooker who give back, and I don’t struggle with the rest of the membership asking for five minutes here or 10 minutes there.

“But Ronnie is different, it is an individual sport and he has got his own agenda. From the governing bodies it has to be a level playing field, so we will never and cannot offer extra money.

“We can’t force people to play, all we can do is provide the opportunities for all from world No. 1 down to the kid that first walks in to a club.

“Ironically something Ronnie may not be aware of is how huge potentially that market and fan base is in Turkey.

“It is a big country with huge companies and I think he has missed out passing up the chance to go.

THE NUMBERS HE WAS ASKING FOR MIGHT HAVE PROVED PENNIES FINANCIALLY IN COMPARISON TO WHAT HE COULD HAVE GOT WHILE OUT THERE. WE’LL NEVER KNOW NOW.

O’Sullivan will return to snooker’s coveted No. 1 spot if he can claim the Players Championship title and a £125,000 top prize in Wolverhampton next week.

The sport’s GOAT earned appearance money from travelling to China in the pre-pandemic past, but has defended his decision to miss the season’s 13th ranking event

“I don’t really have any regrets about not being involved in the Turkish Masters and playing in the qualifiers,” said O’Sullivan, during his 38th ranking title success at the World Grand Prix in December.

A FIVE-STAR HOTEL ON THE BEACH ISN’T GOING TO ENTICE ME TO GET MY CUE OUT OF MY CASE AND ENTER A TOURNAMENT. I COULD PROBABLY GO ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD AND EXPERIENCE THAT – AND NOT HAVE TO BE SURROUNDED BY LOADS OF SNOOKER PLAYERS AND OFFICIALS!

“I could go to Hawaii or Dubai and get invited out there and have equally a great time. It is all about the value for my time and commercial decisions now. I am going to play 10 tournaments a season, because that is what I am contracted to do for my sponsors. I don’t have to play more.

“And if promoters want me to play in their events, then they’ll have to get on the phone and we can come to some sort of arrangement. If not I have got enough work on and enough things to do to keep myself busy. It is a business for me, and I thank World Snooker Tour for that because they have shown it is a business.

“That’s what they are doing, and that’s what the players are doing. Was I surprised they didn’t try and get me there? No, listen, I don’t get surprised by anything these days and take each decision as it comes.”

The “blue/underline” above is my doing.

I have the uttermost respect for Jason Ferguson who I have got to know on the tour. He’s extremely hard working, he loves his sport, and always has time for the players as he has been a player himself. I understand why he is disappointed. Ronnie’s presence in Turkey would have been a boost for the tournament, no doubts.

What surprises me a bit is that quotes from Ronnie as reported here suggest that he wasn’t aware that he would not need to go to qualifiers for this one anyway.

But other than that, he made his position clear: snooker is a job and a business and, now, in his mid 40s, he treats it like as such. He is in a position to choose, and he does. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t love competing and winning. He does, some of his reactions after winning show that much. I have no doubts about it, and Jason knows it as well. The thing is, snooker is not the alpha and omega of Ronnie’s anymore.

I know that many fans will be disappointed by Ronnie’s attitude, but the basic fact is that he is right. It’s a job and it’s a business. Not just in snooker, in all sports. Broadcasters, sponsors, and bookies make billions out of sport, managers to as well to an extend, the sportspersons, especially the big names, want their part of it, and it’s only right. Sports wouldn’t exist without them.

I know that a lot of fans want to believe that it should be all about winning and trophies. That’s naive and/or delusional. Unfortunately, many aspiring kids share those “romantic” views when considering a career in individual sport, only to be hit hard by the reality: nobody lives on thin air and hopes. Bills are waiting to be paid, they need a roof on their heads, they need food in their plate and money to travel to their job … because professional sport IS a job, one you can only successfully do for a limited time and one that does not entitle you to a retirement pension. Many very sucessful snooker players ended up in bankruptcy, even Stephen Hendry.

Some will tell me that Ronnie, by expressing his views, might discourage some youngsters to pursue their dreams. Possibly, but if their dreams aren’t strong enough to resist Ronnie’s opinions, they won’t survive the hard reality check either.