Elliot Slessor has had an excellent couple of seasons after rising to a career high ranking and while he feels his temperament has improved, he is still ‘liable to blow a gasket.’
The 30-year-old is a four-time ranking semi finalist, two of which have come in the last two seasons, with three more quarter-finals in those two campaigns as well.
Now ranked 28 in the world, Slessor is aiming for a third Crucible appearance as he heads to World Championship qualifiers, crediting his improvement to work with coach Chris Henry.
‘I think I played better standard-wise last season, to be honest, but I suppose results wise this season has to go down as me best,’ Slessor told Metro.
‘I started working with Chris Henry probably a season-and-a-half ago. We’ve patched up some of the difficulties I had in my game, so to speak. That’s just coming into fruition now, I would say.
‘It’s a bit of everything. There were some technical bits in there, quite a lot of mental stuff because most people know, I’ve never had the greatest of tempers.’
Frustration has got the better of Slessor at time in his career, but he says it is not just on the snooker table, it is just part of his personality and life.
‘If I’m being completely honest, I don’t think I’ll ever be the greatest at it,’ he said. ‘I’m not blessed with the greatest of temperaments, its not just in snooker it’s in general life.
‘I can try my best and can always improve, but I don’t think I’ll ever be a Mark Selby or a Neil Robertson who never shows you anything. I just don’t think it’s me character.’
He is working on his mentality, and feels he is improving, but is not aiming for perfection.
‘At times it has held me back. I am liable to just blow a gasket,’ he said. ‘Don’t get us wrong, I’m not the greatest now but I’m a hell of a lot better than I used to be. If I can get that to a decent state then I’ll be delighted.’
So what is it that frustrates the man from Gateshead? It is a story that will resonate with almost every player.
‘It’s more performance for me,’ he said. ‘I just can’t handle playing at a level when I know I’m capable of a much higher level.
‘I’ve been doing the same thing since I was 12 years old. I could never accept it then and I probably never will, because I know I’m capable of so much more. So much more.
‘I show it myself day in day out, but I don’t think I will ever be able to fully accept that I can’t perform to me best on any given day.
‘I show the odd glimpse but if you ask the people who practice with us, I’ve never really played to the level I consistently play on a day-to-day basis.
‘It’s probably the same for most players. There’s glimpses and times where I can go berserk, but generally no. There’s positives that the glimpses are a bit more often, but I still don’t do it anywhere near regularly enough.’
Confidence has not suffered as a result of these frustrations and Slessor can be less critical of himself as he knows how incredibly good the competition is.
He feels one specific game was the best performance of his season so far and ended up in a 6-3 loss in Riyadh.
‘It’s never really been belief for me. I know I’ve got game and plenty of it,’ he said. ‘If I show what I show on a daily basis enough I know I’ll do very well out of the game. Whether that happens or not, we’ll have to wait and see.
‘It’s such a tough game. It is a cliché but everybody is so good. You can play really well and get beat. In Saudi Arabia I got to the last 16, turned up and played Murphy, it was the best I’ve played all season and I got hammered. Best match I’ve played all season and I got beat.’
Slessor first turned pro in 2013 so has a lot of experience under his belt at what is now a young age in snooker at 30.
While frustrations remain, things are heading in the right direction and the time is coming to make the next step.
‘It’s funny because most people think I’m older than what I am, people think I’m 35, because I’ve been around so long now. I know I look 55!’ Slessor joked.
‘It feels like I’ve been around forever and I’ve got a lot of experience really. I’ve been to semi-finals a few times and been pretty close hit the crossbar so to speak, hopefully I can get to a final and win one.’
First up in World Championship qualifying is Marco Fu over two sessions on Sunday, with the winner taking on Lyu Haotian or Zhao Xintong.
Having returned from his ban for being part of the match-fixing scandal, Zhao is a real danger, not just in the qualifiers but potentially to win the tournament, and despite the lurking threat, Slessor is glad to see the 28-year-old back.
‘Everybody knows he got banned when he was number nine in the world, he shouldn’t really be in the qualifiers, but what happened happened,’ said Slessor. ‘To be honest, draws make no difference to me at all. I’ve beat some of the best players on Earth and lost to people on paper I shouldn’t lose to. It’s just all what happens on the day.
‘For me, if you throw matches you should never play again. That doesn’t sit right with me. The lad didn’t throw matches, I don’t really know the full story, but as long as he didn’t throw matches then I’m fairly happy to see the lad back.
‘He’s done his time, he made a mistake and it is what it is. I don’t know what situation these young lads were put in, I don’t know the circumstances behind it, so I can’t really base an opinion on it.’
Slessor takes on Fu and Zhao meets Lyu over two sessions at 10am and 7pm on Sunday 13 April in Sheffield.