Ronnie O’Sullivan told he ‘needs to play better’ to win the World Snooker Championship
The Rocket is almost into the quarters.
Ken Doherty believes Ronnie O’Sullivan will have to up his level further if he is to truly contend at the business end of the World Snooker Championship.
The Rocket returned from a three-month hiatus with an impressive 10-4 victory over Ali Carter in the first round as he goes in search of a record eighth world title at the crucible.
And O’Sullivan now finds himself on the verge of the quarter-finals having stormed into a commanding 12-4 lead over Pang Junxu.
Returning on Sunday afternoon leading 6-2, O’Sullivan lost the first two frames to the Chinese World No.27 but reeled off six straight frames in imperious style to leave himself just one frame away from the last eight.
But despite the impressive showing after so much time away from the spotlight, Doherty believes O’Sullivan still has work to do to make himself the man to beat in this year’s tournament.
‘Pang probably poked the bear and the worst thing he did was win the first two frames [of the session], the 1997 World Champion told the BBC.
‘Ronnie just went up the gears, he’s getting better and better but I’m sure there are little bits that he’s still not happy with.’
But Doherty continued: ‘To win this championship, I think he’s going to have to play better. But he hasn’t really been touched yet and he looks like he’s going to win this match quite comfortably.
‘After having this hiatus, to have these couple of matches in the World Championship to get up and running, nobody’s laid a glove on him yet.’
O’Sullivan, himself, has been keen to play down his own chances in this year’s tournament, instead suggesting that current World No.1 Judd Trump is far and away the man to beat.
‘For me his only danger was Kyren Wilson, because Kyren matches up well with Judd, he kind of enjoys that match play, you know snooker is a bit like golf match play, you’re not playing the course, you’re playing the opponent sometimes,’ O’Sullivan told TNT Sports earlier in the week.
‘I think Kyren is probably one of the only top players that relishes playing Judd and I think that makes it a really good game.
‘There’s still loads of other good players in this tournament who can give Judd a game, but he’s definitely the favourite by right.’
Trump is also looking to book his spot in the quarter-finals and currently holds a narrow 5-3 lead over Shaun Murphy heading into Sunday’s evening session.
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