Ronnie O’Sullivan makes drastic cue decision in middle of Crucible semi-final

Ronnie O’Sullivan has continued to make changes to his cue, even in the middle of his World Snooker Championship semi-final against Zhao Xintong.

The Rocket arrived in Sheffield with a new cue for this tournament after smashing his old one during the Championship League in January and not playing competitively since then.

He has not been thrilled with his new equipment, despite winning three matches to get to the semis.

The seven-time champion put a new tip on his cue before the semi-final began and after the first session finished 4-4 he changed his ferrule.

O’Sullivan had been playing with a new titanium ferrule but has reverted back to brass, clearly not pleased with how the change had been going.

Speaking on the BBC, presenter Hazel Irvine said on Thursday night: ‘We knew that Ronnie O’Sullivan was playing with a new tip in that session.

‘Immediately afterwards, we are hearing, he actually went to a shop in Sheffield and changed not only the tip but the ferrule of his cue. A rather extraordinary thing to do in the middle of a semi-final.

Steve Davis is not convinced it’s the best thing to do, saying: ‘Yeah, not great. If you’ve got problems with your equipment and you change mid-stream, how hard is that? How tough is the situation and how bad must it be to change?

‘You’re playing to small margins, but the fact he was trying out a different material for the metal ferrule that has different characteristics, has in this tournament caused him all sorts of problems, but he’s still got over the line, that’s how clever he is. But he’s not happy with he cue so he’s changed it and now he’s into unknown territory.’

Speaking after his first round win over Ali Carter, O’Sullivan was asked if he was playing with a new titanium ferrule and said: ‘I think so yeah, I’m sure it is.

‘I’ve wanted to try it but it didn’t feel great on my old cue. I just got this new cue so I had no idea how it should play, but it feels alright, sounds ok, plays alright. I’m not sure what difference it makes, to be fair, I think it lasts a bit longer.’

Asked if he is found that the titanium ferrule is reducing deflection over distance, he said: ‘That’s totally not true. I wish it was. I was playing some safety shots where you have to put side on and the white, the way I was hitting it, was just going all over the place.

‘I thought, these titanium ferrules definitely don’t stop that from happening. But I’m kind of happy with it.’

However, he did suggest that more changes were coming after beating Si Jiahui in the quarter-finals.

‘I had some work done on my cue today, probably have to get a new ferrule, a new tip, it just feels awful, the cue,’ he said on Wednesday.

‘I’m playing awful and the cue feels awful. It’s the worst situation to be in as a snooker player. I’m still in so I’ll keep punching away, keep trying.’

O’Sullivan made breaks of 64, 73, 60 and 82 in sharing the first eight frames with Zhao on Thursday afternoon.

He has been practicing at the Crucible with his new ferrule on Thursday evening before the second session of the match at 2.30pm on Friday.