Ronnie O’Sullivan, a speech he has not had for a long time, after qualifying for the 2nd round at the World Snooker Championship

Ronnie has won 5 tournaments this season, but has always stated that he is not satisfied with his game. His perfectionist nature has led him to repeatedly declare that he feels horrible at the table even when he wins, because the game doesn’t work the way he wants it to. After today’s success, Ronnie’s speech changed completely, he said that he felt very good throughout the match and that he was very happy with the way he hit. Paradoxically, the Englishman made these statements in the context in which he managed only one break of over 100 points in the duel with Page, while at other times he made several big breaks, but he declared himself unsatisfied.

“Everything is OK. I’m happy. I felt good, I hit good, everything is fine. When my game works I’m happy. But usually I’m bitter when my game doesn’t work. I tried to heal myself, but I didn’t I found no solution. So I put a lot of pressure on myself every time, I want to win every time. The limits are quite small, but this is the system, I was born like that. that’s how I grew up. But I feel like I have a pretty good, decent job.” said Ronnie in the Eurosport studio.

For a place in the quarter-finals, Ronnie will face Ryan Day, who produced a surprise opening-round victory over 15th-seeded Barry Hawkins 10-8. O’Sullivan and Day dueled once before at the World Championship, also in the round of 16. It was happening in 2006, and Ronnie prevailed quite hard, score 13-10. In total, the two have met 8 times in their careers, with the Welshman winning only twice, in small-scale competitions.

Ryan Day has reached the quarter-finals of the Crucible 3 times (2007, 2008 and 2012) but it is hard to believe he will have the strength to repeat that feat this year given the form Ronnie showed in the first leg. Looking at the configuration of the table, it can be seen that “Racheta” has a quarter of the table, as he had only once in his career, in the sense that until the semi-finals he would meet only with players from the qualifications.

If he gets past Ryan Day, Ronnie will be dueling for a place in the ace box with the winner of the Stuart Bingham – Jack Lisowski dispute. Even though both are top players, they reached the main draw through the qualifiers. O’Sullivan has faced such a situation only once before, at the 2004 edition. Then he passed, in the first 3 rounds, Stephen Maguire (10-6), Andy Hicks (13-11) and Anthony Hamilton (13-3), all coming from qualifiers. Ronnie later went all the way at that edition, capturing his second world title after defeating Stephen Hendry (17-4) and Graeme Dott (18-8) in the semi-finals.

If 20 years ago Ronnie played in the semi-finals with Hendry, seeded 2 in that edition, there is a possibility that this year he will reach the grand final without knocking out any favorites along the way. for this to happen, the winner of the Judd Trump – Tom Ford eighth needs to lose in the quarters against the winner of the Jak Jones – Si Jiahui duel. It’s hard to believe this will happen, though, and all indications point to a dream semi-final between Trump and O’Sullivan.

The World Snooker Championship runs from 20 April to 6 May and will have full coverage on Eurosport and the Eurosport app.