Stephen Hendry and Shaun Murphy speak out on Ronnie O’Sullivan’s nightmare Crucible exit

Stephen Hendry and Shaun Murphy both feel Ronnie O’Sullivan’s World Championship exit at the hands of Zhao Xintong should not be put down to the Rocket’s cue troubles.

O’Sullivan was hammered 17-7 by Zhao with the Chinese star playing brilliantly and the 49-year-old struggling badly.

The seven-time world champion was playing with a new cue in this tournament and has made multiple changes to it during the event, switching his tip three times and even changing his ferrule in the middle of his semi-final.

This has come after an absence from competition since mid-January before arriving in Sheffield, breaking his old cue at the Championship League last time he played competitively before the Crucible.

Much has been made of O’Sullivan getting used to his new equipment, or failing to do so, but fellow seven-time champ Hendry thinks the bigger issue is he is simply nowhere near his best in terms of form.

‘He’s not playing well,’ Hendry said on the BBC during the loss to Zhao. ‘Okay, he’s mucking around with cues and ferrules, but I was speaking to him at the practice table, a lot of the shots he exaggerates the elbow behind, that means he’s not cueing well.

‘It doesn’t matter what equipment you’re using, if you’re not cueing well you’re not going to play well.

‘So I think the cues and the ferrules and the tip episodes are exaggerating. His game is not on point at the moment and for the first time in the tournament he’s getting found out about it.’

2005 world champion Murphy was turning the focus to Zhao, saying the excellence of the 28-year-old was forcing a poor performance from the far more experienced man.

‘I think the narrative here is just about how well Zhao Xintong has played to this point, including his four matches at the qualifiers, he’s blitzed through the championship. He’s been irresistible,’ Murphy said on the BBC.

‘We know that Ronnie has had problems with his tip and his cue and absence from the game. But I think a lot of the misses and mistakes from him were more about the pressure Xintong put him under.

‘By his own admission he hasn’t been great through the event. Xintong was the first player all week to put it up to him and he didn’t have the answers.’

Six-time winner Steve Davis does feel the cue has played a part in O’Sullivan’s struggles, saying the Rocket will not be able to regain anything like his best form until he is comfortable with his equipment.

‘You need a cue that you can trust and until that happens you can’t play the game – even somebody as good as Ronnie O’Sullivan,’ said Davis.

The beaten man was not looking to blame his cue, tip, ferrule or anything for his performance, telling the BBC: ‘Zhao played good, deserved his victory. He’s done brilliantly all tournament, all credit to Zhao.

‘I’m not making excuses. I was here to play. That was it really, he played better than me.’

He added in a post-match press conference: ‘I’m at a loss to be honest with you. I have lost what I used to have. I’m so confused. It feels really a struggle.

‘I don’t know if it was me, the cue tip or the ferrule. I didn’t know where the white ball was going.’

Zhao goes on to face either Judd Trump or Mark Williams in the World Championship final, with the second semi coming to an end on Saturday night.