Snooker star Ronnie O’Sullivan has been accused of “playing the media like a fiddle” by fellow player Shaun Murphy amid speculation he could snub the World Championship this year. Murphy says “the Rocket” has been playing down expectations over his performances for his entire career and said reporters had “eaten out of his hand”.
O’Sullivan is a seven-time world champion and will return to snooker at the Crucible this week for the first time since January, but has suggested he might not take part in the tournament and said he would be happy if he could simply win a match.
He told the Sun this month: “At the moment, I would be happy to win a match. If I turn up at Sheffield and I win a match, I would go ‘that’s a huge victory for me’. It really would be.
“I don’t have any expectations. I’d just like to not feel all at sea out there. If I can just play and at least feel semi-competitive, I’d be happy with that.”
But his rival Murphy is not buying his comments and accused him of playing mind games, saying “no one would be surprised” if he won the competition.
Murphy said: “Well he’s been playing everything down since he turned pro in 1992, he’s played everything down for 30-odd years and you guys, the media, have bought it lock, stock and barrel.
“He’s played you like a fiddle, incredible really, and he continues to do it to this day. You all eat out of his hand, incredible. He will play it down, play it down and play it down and nobody would be surprised if he walked off with the trophy in three weeks’ time.”
When asked if he felt there was a chance O’Sullivan wouldn’t turn up at the Crucible, Murphy added: “No, absolutely not. I don’t know for a fact but I think he was always going to turn up and play at the World Championship, it would be very hard to miss.
“But it will be interesting to see how he plays. I’m sure he’ll be fresh, he’s obviously not played any matches. And I’m sure, whatever gets said, he’ll have been putting a lot of time in at the practice table, not least to get used to a new cue, that doesn’t happen overnight.
“So it will be very interesting to see how he performs and of course it’s the draw that everybody wanted so it will be interesting to see how that works out.”
The opening round on Tuesday will see O’Sullivan play Ali Carter, while Murphy faces Daniel Wells and he is confident he can go all the way at the Crucible after winning the Masters in January.
He said: “I always believed that I could still win ranking events and play well on my day, but I’d totally lost the belief that I could win a major, those massive events. They’re different, the Triple Crowns are different and I didn’t think I could win them anymore.
“I come here this year, not just believing that I can win, but I know that I can win and that’s different.”
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