06 March 2024 , 09:51
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Ronnie O’Sullivan couldn’t resist a cheeky comment about Mark Selby after his first match in Saudi Arabia went on into the early hours of the morning.
O’Sullivan eased into the next round with a remarkably one-sided 4-0 win over John Higgins in the inaugural Riyadh Season World Masters of Snooker. Higgins failed to pot a single ball as the seven-time world champion dominated from start to finish to set up a semi-final with Judd Trump in Riyadh.
The match was the last of the day and didn’t start until 1.45am local time, in large part due to an earlier epic encounter between Selby and Mark Allen, which took an age to complete. Allen won the match 4-3 in the end, but the length of their game annoyed those scheduled to play afterwards.
Fellow professional Jack Lisowski was on interviewing duty for Eurosport and praised O’Sullivan’s performance before adding: “You’ve done us a favour, because it’s getting late here.” O’Sullivan laughed, looked at his watch and replied: “Selby – I call him ‘Midnight Selby’ because his games go past midnight every game, it’s a nightmare. You don’t want to be following Mark because you’re going into the next day!”
Asked if it felt like 3am to him, O’Sullivan added: “No. Listen, when I’m tired, I sleep and I had a good few hours today so I feel like I’m just getting going. I’ll keep playing if the fans want it. They’ve all gone home now!”
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It was then put to him that the day’s matches had been very entertaining, to which he responded: “Have they? I’ve not watched any to be honest, I’ve just been chilling out. But, yeah, I know. Listen, you’re getting all the top players playing against each other, so you’re always going to get good games, unless it’s Mark and Mark today – you know, it was a bit of a drag wasn’t it? Even Mark Allen, he went ‘that was tough’. But yeah.”
Ronnie O'Sullivan isn't a fan of Mark Selby's playing style (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)O’Sullivan has never been shy of sharing his opinion of Selby, who has won four world titles through his more patient and cautious playing style. But the Rocket wasn’t the only player to voice his irritation with the delayed schedule in the Saudi Arabian capital.
Ali Carter was beaten 4-1 by Luca Brecel earlier in the day and gave a spiky post-match interview in which he criticised the referee and moaned about the delay. "I got here and I'm four hours waiting to play," Carter said.
"Coming a long way and you have to deal with that. It's a great event and it's very raw at the minute. It's such a big opportunity for someone to win such a great event. For everything to go wrong today, right from the off is very frustrating."