Neil Robertson would like to see a big change to the format of the World Snooker Championship, with much shorter matches at the business end of the tournament.
The Australian got his campaign underway at the Crucible this year with a 10-6 win over Pang Junxu, wrapped up on Thursday evening.
He books a last 16 meeting with Chris Wakelin, where the format will extend from best-of-19 to best-of-25.
Later in the event, the matches then get longer again, with the semis over a best-of-33 and the final a best-of-35.
Robertson thinks there is no need for the epic contests of the final two rounds and would leave it at a race to 13 frames from the second round onwards.
‘The best out of 35 is a very long match,’ Robertson told Midnite. ‘In today’s day and age, I think a best out of 25 is enough.
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‘First to 13, I think it’s a great match. It’s over three sessions. I think the semi-finals obviously goes for a long time.
‘Me personally, I would probably change it to once you get to the second round, then it’s just best out of 25 for the whole way through.’
The 2010 world champion has also suggested that players should be limited in how long they can play on for snookers, either in terms of time or in how many points they can try to claw back.
‘I think when players need snookers sometimes we carry on hoping for that one in a hundred chance that we’ll get a free ball and…the opponent will fail, we get a free ball and clear up,’ he said.
‘I think you have a restriction on either the time limit that they have to get the snookers or a points threshold where if you need two snookers then just the frame is over. I think that would help a lot actually.’
Robertson’s win over Pang saw a stodgy first session on Wednesday, which the Aussie escaped from with a 5-4 lead.
When the players returned on Thursday night, play was more open and the world number three powered to victory, making a century in the last.
‘I think yesterday was tough,’ he told the BBC. ‘He [Pang] doesn’t try to make things happen, he’s really good at trapping you defensively and gets in that way. I was trying to open he door, he kept closing the door.
‘It was really good, I battled well, I tried to stay aggressive when I could. To have a lead last night was nice then today the new cloth really helped, yesterday the table was tough, today it played beautiful. My long potting was great, my safety was good.’
Robertson and Wakelin engage over their best-of-25 second round match, starting on Saturday morning.