Just now: Ronnie O’Sullivan is accused by Jimmy White of ‘not revealing’ his genuine retirement attitude at the Masters
Snooker icon Jimmy White has disagreed with Ronnie O’Sullivan at the Masters over the Rocket’s future.
Jimmy White has insisted that Ronnie O’Sullivan is “not declaring” his true intentions for the remainder of his career at the Masters, after the Rocket supposedly outlined his next ambitions. The 48-year-old has set his sights on 24 Triple Crown titles, which he can come close to achieving with victory in Sunday’s final.
Following his first-round victory over Ding Junhui on Monday, O’Sullivan moved three wins away from lifting the Masters title for a record-extending eighth time. He already reached eight wins at the UK Championship in December, with seven Masters and World Championships making up 22 Triple Crown trophies in total.
The Rocket has admitted that he would like to reach an even eight titles at each of the British calendar highlights. “It was nice when I had 7, 7, 7, and now I’ve got 7, 7, 8. So it’d be nice to go 8, 8, 8 – the three eights,” O’Sullivan said.
“I suppose that’s the sort of motivational thing to try and get another Masters, try and maybe get another Worlds. I said I was happy with one World Championship, one UK, one Masters; over the moon. So, when we start talking about going beyond that, I sort of just see everything as just a bonus really; a nice bit of icing on the cake. eight, eight, eight – let’s go for it.”
But White does not believe that O’Sullivan is targeting eight wins at each Triple Crown event before retiring, contrary to the Rocket’s claims, and insists that he wants 30 in total.
“He sort of plays it down a bit because he has all the records but he’d love to win 10 of each Triple Crowns and then I think you might see that he might think no one can beat that,” White said. “Listen, he’s going for 10 of each of the Triple Crowns, he’s just not declaring it.”
O’Sullivan has 22 Triple Crown wins, more than any other player as Stephen Hendry follows in second place with 18. Similarly, O’Sullivan has more UK Championship and Masters wins than any other player, but Hendry has tied him on World Championships with seven.
He has already cemented his status as snooker’s greatest-ever player, but 10 wins at each Triple Crown event would put that claim beyond any reasonable doubt.
O’Sullivan is unlikely to be thinking so far into the future, having already admitted that he is unsure when he will retire from professional snooker, but White is not buying into the idea that 24 Triple Crown wins is the Rocket’s ambition – he believes that the icon wants 30 in total before calling a day on his illustrious career.
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