Why did it take Ronnie O’Sullivan so long to win his first world title?
I think the clues to the answers as to why Robertson and Trump have poor records in the World Championship can be answered by what the sport’s GOAT endured to win his first world crown. Throughout the years, O’Sullivan has been honest enough to say he finds little enjoyment in the 17-day marathon at the Crucible Theatre. Despite his persona, Ronnie is cleverer than most observers realise and one of the shrewdest things he did early in his career was to enlist the help of a psychologist. Whether on a conscious or subconscious level, the Rocket realised he needed help in mastering the marathon event, so finding someone to help him with the mental process was a wise move. If that wasn’t enough, he approached Ray Reardon to be his mentor and confidante to help him through the Sheffield experience. Who better to have the ear of than the six-time world champion?
For over a decade since his first world title, Robertson has dominated World Snooker Tour events with a high level of consistency, accumulating his ranking title count to 22. The problem is that for all his success in other ranking events, the Australian has not been close to adding another world crown since his 2010 win.
Likewise, Trump won the 2019 WC and his final display against John Higgins was the most impressive I can ever remember. That said, it took him the best part of a decade to reach a second world final after losing to Higgins in the 2011 trophy match. Like Robertson, Trump had been perpetually a top-eight player during that time and the last three years have been impressive in his domination of the sport as world number one.
Maybe because Trump and Robertson reached world finals early in their career, it still hasn’t occurred to them that they aren’t ideally suited to the event. It’s also feasible that they didn’t have Ronnie’s expectations for themselves but regardless, like all things in life, hindsight is easy. That hindsight though brings a sample size to cast opinions and theories so as a bettor, when the WC comes round with Trump and Robertson at 3/1 (4.00) and 6/1 (7.00) respectively, they are the first names to be crossed off my list from an easy math perspective. Whether right or wrong those are the facts of the matter.
Edwards Snooker Form 2022 (Craig Edwards)
