O'Sullivan wilted under pressure only Crucible can cause - it should never leave

01 May 2024 , 21:13

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Ronnie O'Sullivan's hopes of winning the Snooker World Championship are over for another year (Image: George Wood/Getty Images)

This was not how the greatest-ever snooker player’s quest for yet another World Championship was supposed to end.

In his chair, gesticulating at the referee, refusing to play while punters streamed down the gangways, refreshment in their hands. But even the best get rattled, even the best lose their cool, even the best wilt under the Crucible’s pressure.

And as Ronnie O’Sullivan took his leave from Sheffield, it was hard not to wonder if the seventh title he won here in 2022 will now be his last. Although he turns 49 in December, O’Sullivan will be back … but whether he will be back, motivated and capable of winning again is another matter.

After some high-profile exits, this was a championship at his mercy and as well as Stuart Bingham performed - and he was the calmest man in the Crucible on a fraught day - Ronnie blew it.

And deep down, he knew it. He missed crucial balls at crucial times and, more significantly, looked distracted from the moment in late afternoon when he believed referee Desislava Bozhilova “got it wrong” when spotting a black in the 17th frame.

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In his fateful evening session, O’Sullivan again had words with the referee when he decided to stage a sit-down protest because spectators were noisily making their way through a door to retake their seats after the break in the match between Kyren Wilson and John Higgins.

After that fractious interlude - and with Ronnie ruffled and Bingham unruffled - you got the feeling there was only going to be one victor. And so it proved.

O'Sullivan is out of the World Snooker Championship (PA)

For the championship, for the sport, for the venue, O’Sullivan’s exit - with respect to 47-year-old Bingham, the 2015 champion - is clearly a hammer-blow but it was also a compelling example of what the pressure of this place can do to even the greatest.

It was a painful defeat for O’Sullivan but it was drama of the highest order - the sort of drama only this snooker arena can provide.

That is why it would be madness to ever take the event away from the Crucible. And you never know, when he gets over this, O’Sullivan could yet provide plenty more. Let’s hope so.

Andy Dunn