Just-in: Does Ronnie O’Sullivan worry about the Masters of Snooker?

Apart from the awkward moment a car park attendant failed to recognise him, Ronnie O’Sullivan has made serene progress at this year’s snooker Masters.

The seven-time Masters champion has beaten Ding Junhui and Barry Hawkins to reach the semi-finals, where Shaun Murphy awaits him on Saturday.

But as has increasingly become the norm, O’Sullivan has generated more headlines with his searingly honest comments away from the baize.

This week, the seven-time world champion has seemed more interested in the post-match culinary delights awaiting him than his performances.

O’Sullivan has also taken aim at ‘dirty, cold and disgusting’ venue Alexandra Palace, given advice to darts sensation Luke Littler and apologised to Hawkins for ‘dragging him down to my level’.

The 48-year-old is more than happy to create a sideshow and make people question his commitment to the tournament – before winning all his matches.

His latest tirade on Thursday came at the expense of the Ally Pally, beloved of darts fans but less so of snooker stars.

‘I just don’t like this place, I find it disgusting,’ O’Sullivan said of a venue where he receives vociferous support.

‘Everywhere is dirty, cold, I’m freezing. I have to sit here in my coat. Everywhere you go, you’re going through car parks, there are bins.

‘I don’t know if you’ve seen up there, there’s food and stuff and it makes me feel ill to be honest with you.

‘I’m a clean freak. When I come here, it gives me the heebie-jeebies and I can’t wait to get out of here. I’m sorry, that’s just how I feel.’

The Ally Pally isn’t the first venue to attract his ire – a few years back, O’Sullivan described the K2 Leisure Centre in Crawley as a ‘hellhole’ which ‘smelled of urine’.

He later joked: ‘Every day in Crawley is a day lost in my life.’

O’Sullivan, who has admitted feeling under the weather this week, was scathing of his own ‘awful’ performance despite beating Hawkins 6-3 on Thursday to reach his 15th Masters semi-final.

‘I’m lucky to get through. I felt bad for Barry – I just dragged him down to my level. It’s a funny old game,’ O’Sullivan told the BBC.

‘That’s the most awful standard of snooker. I just said to Barry at the end: “Sorry mate”.’

O’Sullivan has appeared most animated this week when talking about the food he’s going to enjoy after his matches.

After beating Hawkins, he said: ‘I fancy a curry – a massive, dirty curry. There’s nothing I don’t like.’

The other day, the snooker champion was hankering after a tasty Chinese.

‘I’m actually really looking forward to my Chinese at Ken’s afterwards,’ he told Eurosport.

‘My mate Ken is here and he’s got the sea bass all ready and waiting.

‘So I’m really excited about getting this match over and done with, hopefully get the win and get down to Ken’s Chinese and have a nice bit of scoff later.’

O’Sullivan’s love of Chinese food comes across in a scene in the Amazon documentary released last year where he is filmed eating in a deserted restaurant.

Given the venue, O’Sullivan was also asked to give his advice to 16-year-old darts sensation Littler, who reached last week’s World Championship final there.

Littler shot to fame and fortune as the 66-1 outsider knocked out a host of star names before losing 7-4 to Luke Humphries.

O’Sullivan knows all about teenage kicks having won the UK Championship in 1993 when he was only 17.

And he admitted he would follow the path of his former rival Stephen Hendry and hire a good manager to make avoid going off the rails.

‘I think if I had my time again, I’d probably take the [Stephen] Hendry route and just be always around an Alex Ferguson-type figure,’ the seven-time world champion told SportBoom.com.

‘I’d definitely choose to do things differently. So, just keep your feet on the ground if you can and just keep good people around.’

O’Sullivan hasn’t exactly done too badly regardless and his post-match remarks after the Murphy match will be as eagerly-anticipated as the contest itself.