Ronnie O’Sullivan may have won his opening game at the Wuhan Open but says he was ‘pretty bad’ and feels there is nothing he can do to improve.
The Rocket beat Ashley Carty 5-2 on Monday morning in Wuhan, but was a long way from his immense best.
O’Sullivan made three half-centuries with a high break of just 59 – although this was a nice clearance to win the third – as Carty spurned opportunities to win plenty more frames than he did.
It is remarkable that O’Sullivan is still competing and in the world’s top 16 at 50 years old, but he is increasingly down on the snooker he is producing.
The seven-time world champion has struggled to find form consistently for a significant amount of time now – he reckons as long as four years – and he is not sure if that will change.
Still capable of incredible bursts of play, like his two 147s in the same match in Saudi Arabia last season, O’Sullivan does not know if he can regain that magic on a regular basis.
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‘My performance was pretty bad really,’ he said after beating Carty. ‘You have to call it out. I’m not going to lie.
‘I’m not going to try to delude myself and say there was some good stuff. It has been pretty bad for a long time, so I expect to play pretty bad every time I go out there.
‘I know I don’t have anything to prove and that is what everyone keeps telling me. However, for my own selfish reasons I miss playing well and dominating the table, beating anyone who is in front of me.
‘I miss that feeling, but there is nothing I can do about it.’
He has the chance to regain that feeling as his campaign in Wuhan continues against Yao Pengcheng in the last 32 on Tuesday at 7am UK time.
O’Sullivan’s chances of getting on a run have been improved by world champion Wu Yize’s surprise defeat to Latvian youngster Artemijs Zizins on Monday.
Wu is in the Rocket’s section of the draw but there will be no meeting with the Englishman in the last 16 after a 5-4 loss to the 20-year-old.
Zizins has been to just one last 16 so far in his young career and will need to beat Stephen Maguire to make his second this week, taking on the Scot in the same 7am slot as O’Sullivan on Tuesday.
Wu was in the race to become world number one this week, but will not be usurping Judd Trump after his shock early loss.
Trump is battling to keep hold of the top spot but is facing challengers in the forms of Neil Robertson, Zhao Xintong and Mark Selby.
All four got off to good starts with Trump hammering Florian Nuessle 5-0 and Zhao beating Gao Yang by the same scoreline.
Neil Robertson dropped just one frame to beat Ben Mertens 5-1, while Selby downed Fan Zhengyi 5-2 in his opener, coming off his China Open triumph earlier this month.