Ronnie O’Sullivan taunts young snooker rivals and tells them to ‘get their act together’ as he aims for Masters history
CREAKY BONES Ronnie O’Sullivan taunted his younger rivals by laughing: “I’m going blind, got dodgy arms and knees – and you still cannot beat me!”
The evergreen Rocket, who turned 48 last month, will aim to become the oldest Masters champion in history on Sunday.
The world No.1 crushed Shaun Murphy 6-2 in the semi-finals but avoided any stings or disturbances from the presence of an Ally Pally wasp.
Told that he could become the oldest man to lift the Paul Hunter Trophy, O’Sullivan said: “I don’t feel that old.
“I know what my age is. But I feel young in my mind. I feel young when I’m round the table.
“I feel a lot younger round the table than I do playing these young players.
“They look old, their brains are quite slow. For me, I feel my brain is still pretty quick around the snooker table, which is enough.
“They need to get their act together. Because I’m going blind, got a dodgy arm and bad knees! And they still cannot beat me.”
O’Sullivan top-scored with a break of 90 in frame six as he reached a 14th Masters final since his first in 1995.
The Essex cueman said: “Steve Davis said ‘I shouldn’t try to entertain the crowd’. But I never have done.
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“I’ve always gone out there and tried to play snooker the way I know I can.
“If the crowd enjoy that, then great. It has never been my philosophy. I have always wanted to play the game well.
“If I don’t, then I get frustrated. At the start of the match there were a few mistakes. Then I cleaned it up a little bit. I need to do that these days.
“I cannot pot as well as these guys. I can make good breaks amongst the balls. I make up for it that way. Listen, I won the match. That’s it.
“A 14th final? It’s alright. Not bad. I’m playing like I’m playing exhibitions.
“I won’t sweat guts out there, make 20, 30, play safe. There’s no point. I won’t enjoy it much.
“I’m not playing kamikaze. But I don’t care. If I win, then great. If not, there’s a tournament next week.
“It’s more like a job for me. I’ve tried to think of other things to do. I’m not chasing records. Well, I have got them all anyway..!”
For several years now at the Triple Crown tournaments, Murphy juggles his playing commitments with work as a BBC TV analyst.
The Magician, 41, was in the studio for the Mark Allen versus Mark Selby quarter-final which did not finish until 12.15am on Saturday morning.
But after breaks of 131 and 100, he gave a passionate and robust defence of his dual role, saying: “I’m getting a bit sick and tired now of people talking about this. People really need to cop on with themselves.
“I’m very capable of sitting in a room with coffee on tap, watching snooker and talking about it without it affecting my next day’s play.
“I’ve been doing it this for three or four years now. It’s time we move on. It has helped me.
“Any suggestion that me sitting in a TV studio watching a snooker match affected me out there is complete and utter b*****ks.”