Ronnie O’Sullivan has been playing down his expectations his entire career, says Shaun Murphy, playing the media like a fiddle in doing so.
Both Murphy and O’Sullivan begin their World Championship campaigns on Tuesday, although there was some doubt over the Rocket’s attendance this year.
Having not played competitively since January, the seven-time world champion suggested he may not be at the Crucible this year, for the first time since 1993.
He was trying to get himself mentally ready to compete, while he was also getting used to a new cue after snapping his old one out of frustration at the Championship League in January.
Doubts remained over whether the Rocket would land in Sheffield up until last week, but Murphy was always confident he would turn up for the big one.
‘No, absolutely not,’ said Murphy on if he thought O’Sullivan would not turn up at the Crucible. ‘I don’t know for a fact but I think he was always going to turn up and play at the World Championship, it would be very hard to miss.
‘But it will be interesting to see how he plays. I’m sure he’ll be fresh, he’s obviously not played any matches. And I’m sure, whatever gets said, he’ll have been putting a lot of time in at the practice table, not least to get used to a new cue, that doesn’t happen overnight.
‘So it will be very interesting to see how he performs and of course it’s the draw that everybody wanted so it will be interesting to see how that works out.’
The draw that everybody wanted sees O’Sullivan face old foe Ali Carter in what has been a feisty affair in the past.
Speaking in the build-up to the World Championship, the Rocket said that just coming through the first round would be an achievement.
He told The Sun earlier this month: ‘At the moment, I would be happy to win a match. If I turn up at Sheffield and I win a match, I would go “that’s a huge victory for me”. It really would be.’
He added on the eve of the tournament: ‘I don’t have any expectations. I’d just like to not feel all at sea out there. If I can just play and at least feel semi-competitive, I’d be happy with that.’
Murphy feels this kind of talk is a bid to relieve some pressure, saying O’Sullivan has been doing similar for over three decades and the media have been happy to lap it up.
‘Well he’s been playing everything down since he turned pro in 1992, he’s played everything down for 30-odd years and you guys, the media, have bought it lock, stock and barrel,’ said the Magician.
‘He’s played you like a fiddle, incredible really, and he continues to do it to this day. You all eat out of his hand, incredible. He will play it down, play it down and play it down and nobody would be surprised if he walked off with the trophy in three weeks’ time.’
On his cue issue, O’Sullivan dismissed fears, saying: ‘Yeah, I’ve got a cue. It didn’t cost nothing. I got given it. It seems OK.
‘I’ve had this one for three or four months sitting in a rack. I tried it out and it was OK. I had a couple of days with it and realised I could probably play with it if I have to.’
Old rival John Higgins fancies the new cue to be a bonus for O’Sullivan, telling TNT Sports: ‘I expect him to come out and fly, to be perfectly honest. I think he’ll be using a new cue, at our stage of life you maybe need little things to keep you interested in the game and I’m sure if he’s happy with the cue it’ll be giving him the impetus to play well and practice with it.’
As for Murphy’s hopes of landing a second world title this year, he feels more confident than he has in some time after winning the Masters in January.
That triumph at Alexandra Palace has reaffirmed his belief that he is a genuine contender for the biggest prizes in the sport and none are bigger than the World Championship.
‘I think the danger was I started to see myself as a bit of a number-maker-upper. Just turning up to tournaments for the craic, having a good time and starting to see my career dwindle down,’ he said.
‘I always believed that I could still win ranking events and play well on my day, but I’d totally lost the belief that I could win a major, those massive events. They’re different, the Triple Crowns are different and I didn’t think I could win them anymore.
‘So no one was more surprised than me, but the winning of that Masters and the trophy I get to look at every single day has completely reignited my belief and my confidence in my own game.
‘I come here this year, not just believing that I can win, but I know that I can win and that’s different.’
Murphy begins his campaign against Daniel Wells on Tuesday morning.