Snooker legend Stephen Hendry feels Ronnie O'Sullivan has 'lost competitive spirit'
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Stephen Hendry believes his fellow seven-time world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan has ‘lost that little bit of competitive spirit’ after a slow start to the season for the Rocket.
It was only last season that O’Sullivan won five titles including the UK Championship and Masters, with the 48-year-old still ranked number five in the world.
However, he has skipped a few events so far this campaign and his best run so far has been the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters and Xi’an Grand Prix.
The Rocket was beaten in the last 32 of the International Championship by Pang Junxu last week and Hendry feels he is just not that motivated at the minute.
Speaking after his loss in Nanjing, Hendry told the Snooker Club podcast: ‘He missed the three tournaments previously so he’s hardly played. I think he went to Macao for an exhibition with Jak Jones and Jak beat him 3-1, before going to Nanjing.
‘At times this season he’s dabbled with playing left-handed. I think Ronnie is searching for things to make himself enjoy playing or anything that gives himself a little bit of something to make him focus and make him concentrate.
‘It seems to me that he’s lost that little bit of competitive spirit, if you like. It seems like to me he looks like he’s much more comfortable just playing exhibitions and earning absolute fortunes.
‘He’s got his academy in Saudi Arabia, he’s huge in China, he’s an ambassador for Wynn Casinos in Macao, so much going on, I think the competitive side of snooker is down the list for Ronnie at the moment.’
Hendry is far from writing off the Rocket, though, and feels that with this week’s Champion of Champions, followed closely by the UK Championship and then January’s Masters, he could soon be firing again.
‘At Ronnie’s stage of his career, the fire isn’t burning as brightly as it was, probably,’ said the Scot. ‘There’s only going to be certain events that get the juices flowing for Ronnie.
‘I think this week, one-table, he enjoys it here, he’s had an unbelievable run of wins here at Champion of Champions. You’ve got the UK coming up, the first Triple Crown, which he won last year, then the Masters, which he absolutely loves.
‘So this part of the season is going to be really interesting to see if Ronnie still has that will to win these events and prove how good he is.’
O’Sullivan is due to be in action on Thursday afternoon at the Champion of Champions againt Xiao Guodong in his opening game.
He will begin the defence of his UK Championship title on the first afternoon of the tournament at the Barbican in York on 23 November.
