Ronnie O’Sullivan labels Neil Robertson the ‘best player in the world at the moment, hands down’

Ronnie O’Sullivan reckons Neil Robertson is clearly the best player on the planet at the moment and has backed the Australian to win the World Championship this year – if he can get over his issue with the cramped Crucible.

Robertson has certainly been the standout player of the season so far, winning the Masters, Players Championship and English Open, while also losing out to O’Sullivan in the final of the World Grand Prix.

The 40-year-old has taken his ranking event tally to 22, but just one of those is a World Championship as he has struggled to translate his great success from elsewhere to Sheffield.

The Thunder from Down Under has been to just one Crucible semi-final since he won the world title in 2010 and has admitted he does not like the tight nature of the venue during the two-table set-up.

The South Yorkshire venue takes on a whole new form at the semi-final stage when it is just one table on show and O’Sullivan reckons that if Robertson can make it there then he will not be stopped this year.

‘Without a doubt Neil is the best player in the world at the moment, hands down,’ O’Sullivan told the Mirror. ‘He is the complete player. Very aggressive, very good safety, amazing potter, great technique and good under pressure.

‘If he can get back to the semi-finals of the World Championship, he wins it as far as I’m concerned.

‘The only thing he seems to struggle with at the Crucible is that it is a small venue. With the partition and two-table set-up he can’t do his usual approach and walk into the shot as he would like.

‘But if he does manage to get past the quarter-finals ,when the divider goes, right now I can’t see anyone getting near him over that distance. He’s just too good.’

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