Lieutenant Dan wrote:
Plum wrote:
It's such a great effort by Littler, even more so to keep it going in the way he has so far.
On the other end of the age spectrum, Ronnie O'Sullivan has just got into yet another major Snooker final, and his current run as world #1 is now the longest of his 32 year professional career - and that's such a great effort for a 48 year old!
O'Sullivan is the type of flawed genius that I think plenty expected to shine bright for a good while when he burst through as a teenager but then burn up and self combust, rather than show such longevity to still be at the top of the game 30+ years later. Shows you can't always predict what will happen to these super talented youngsters - good and bad scenarios. Hopefully Littler can sustain it and have a long, successful career - he certainly couldn't have started it any better!
No disrespect to Ronnie, but
one of Selby and Trump should really have knocked him off his perch by now.The 2014 world final is still my favourite match of all time. Ronnie was 10-5 up and Selby spent a day and a half of unwavering diligence and mental fortitude grinding him into dust. I love snooker matches with contrasting styles.
You'd have thought so, yeah. Or any of the multitude of Chinese players. But their inability to do so yet is as much to do with O'Sullivan somehow keeping up his break building ability while
improving his safety game, match play and mental strength throughout the decades than it has the failings of others.
It's as if he gets all his demons out with the BS he spouts in interviews nowadays, and pretty much always has his mental state in a good place during the games. That wasn't always the case at all, so his match play and consistency are as good as they've ever been, if not stronger. Even if he has finally lost some of that genius / magic along the way, he seems mentally stronger and harder for the likes of Selby to wear him down.