vodkadiet wrote:BadSnookerPlayer.
O'Sullivan is far better than anyone else at present. Selby could raise his game, probably Robertson. But no one else. Higgins could not beat O'Sullivan in a long match at The Crucible. O'Sullivan would thrash him.
I disagree.
In ranking (only major) events Higgins has an excellent H2H record against Ronnie winning around 2 to 1 so statements like John can't beat Ronnie in a long crucible match just don't hold water. Overall H2H for all matches has Ronnie with a slight edge but with over 25+ years and 60+ matches with each other the only significant difference in their H2H record is in the major ranking events.
No disrespect to Ronnie but for the most part he has been able to play "practice snooker", having won it all he feels no pressure to produce. To boot he feels there are few players who can deliver under pressure these days That's allowed Ronnie a freedom/level of comfort to play matches like he's practicing which has translated to some blow out finals and 4 ranking titles this season.
In Ronnie's match with Higgins you could see that Ronnie didn't play with the level of comfort he did in previous matches and missed some shots that you'd never expect him to. Many noted his play was more "negative" against Higgins than previous opponents but that's what fear can do, even to the greats.
Has Ronnie been playing so much better than the rest? I don't think so, or at least not to any great extent. Robertson, Selby and Ding have all had a pretty poor season and with Ronnie not feeling any pressure to deliver he's able to just play freely.
That said, I think Ronnie not having been put under the gun very often this year will be a bad thing in the end.
Playing well because you're not feeling the pressure is very different from playing well because you're handling /thriving on the pressure.
The WC is always pressure, even having won it 5 times. Ronnie trying to equal Davis' 6 titles is a very different kind of pressure, it'll be self imposed. Ronnie being his harshest critic I think will have to work hard to control it. Ronnie might've been better off/better prepared for the WC if he'd have had to fight harder or been forced to cope with more pressure. Losing as he did to Higgins showed that when the pressure is on he's not quite as solid as many of his title haul/final scorelines this year seem to indicate.
Time will tell...good luck to both legends for the rest of the season, may they treat us to a few more classics before they're done