Stephen Hendry expects Ronnie O’Sullivan to have a ‘hell of a season’ if he continues like he plays as he has done so far this campaign.
The Rocket has played just two events so far this season and is yet to lift a trophy, but he produced some stunning snooker at the Saudi Arabia Masters last week.
The 49-year-old turned in one of the great performances in his 6-3 semi-final win over Chris Wakelin, making two 147s and a string of other big breaks.
The final against Neil Robertson looked to be going badly wrong at 7-2 behind, but he fought back to 7-7 before losing a deciding frame to be pipped to the title 10-9 by the Australian.
Hendry has loved what he has seen so far this campaign from O’Sullivan, even in his brief appearance at the Shanghai Masters which saw him beat Barry Hawkins before losing to Kyren Wilson.
His form is clearly back after a disappointing last season, but Hendry feels his attitude to fight for victories appears to have returned as well.
‘For the rest of the season, if he is up for it in every tournament then he is going to have one hell of a season,’ the Scot said on World Snooker Tour’s Snooker Club podcast.
‘If he continues to play that high standard and his attitude is that he wants to be there, wants to compete and wants to dig in then it could be a really interesting season for Ronnie.
‘I thought he looked really good in Shanghai although Kyren played brilliant to beat him.’
On the Rocket’s spell-binding performance against Wakelin, Hendry noted that O’Sullivan’s cue issues of last season must be firmly behind him: ‘Even for Ronnie it’s the first time, he’s never done it before and may never do it again.
‘You cannot play snooker better than that, basically, that is as good as it gets. Two 147s, a 142, a 134, you can’t play better than that. It was genius stuff.
‘He obviously loves the cue, to do what he’s done that’s having complete confidence in the cue he’s using. It’s just genius.’
It appears that O’Sullivan has made a good start to his two-year plan of cutting out distractions away from tournaments and focussing on rediscovering his best form when it matters.
Speaking at this year’s World Championship, he said: ‘I said I wanted to at least do two proper years. Put everything I was doing on the back burner. I don’t feel like I have that luxury anymore to do other things and try and compete.
‘I think I owe it to my career to focus just on playing for the next two years, at least, and just see if I can rediscover some decent form. Try and finish my carer on a good note and not how it’s felt for the last three or four years. That’s my main goal.
‘There will be no more exhibitions or distractions off the table.’
Barry Hawkins, who practices with O’Sullivan on occasion, sees no reason to doubt that this is his plan.
‘I think he’s said it quite publicly that he’s going to concentrate more on the snooker this year and cut down on the exhibition side of things and concentrate more on the season,’ the Hawk told the Snooker Club podcast.
‘He normally does so much work in China, big exhibitions, he’s non-stop. So I think he’s going to get his head down. He’s been doing it for a long time so I’m sure he don’t need the money anymore!’
Next up for the Rocket is set to be the Wuhan Open, with his opening round match against Allan Taylor on Sunday.