Ronnie O’Sullivan has gained reputation of being unbeatable this season but Rocket has played awful snooker, says rival

RONNIE O’SULLIVAN has played “pretty awful” this season and relied on his opponents making mistakes, claims rival Neil Robertson.

The Rocket has won the last three tournaments he has entered and claimed the first two Triple Crown events of the season.

He triumphed at both the UK Championship and the Masters, which was his record-extending eighth win, and then followed that up with success at the World Grand Prix.

O’Sullivan, 48, has often been critical of his own displays even though he is on a 15-match winning run since November.

And he revealed that he is not enjoying playing at the moment as he announced that he was pulling out of the German Masters in order to protect his “health and wellbeing” before April’s World Championship.

Robertson, the 2010 world champion, advanced to the third round in Berlin by beating namesake Jimmy yesterday.

He has struggled for form himself this season, but he has claimed that success is not always on how well you perform as he pointed to O’Sullivan’s performances.

Robertson said: “You can get very comfortable and complacent when you’re just cruising into the last-16, quarter-finals, with your opponents falling over the line.

“We’ve probably seen that with Ronnie recently, let’s have it right he’s played pretty awful, but he’s been able to keep winning because people keep missing blacks off the spot, pinks off the spot.

“He’s gained that reputation of being unbeatable this season even though he’s played awful.

“He’s even talked about it himself, he’s almost laughing about it, people just can’t put him away.

“That has gone from me now, where people are putting me away if I’m not playing well, so I just have to play well.

“I’m not focused on if my opponents are playing the match of their life. If they’re playing the match of their life then I’ve done something wrong.

“I’m just really focused about getting the best out of my performances and controlling everything I can do, which is really super hard work, eating well, sleeping well, diet, physical exercise.

“There's absolutely no stone that's going to be unturned from now for the rest of the season.”

Ron's verdict

O’Sullivan did mock his rivals on his way to winning the Masters by claiming that they were unable to beat him even though he was struggling physically.

He said: “I don't feel that old. I know my age is, but I feel young in my mind, I feel young when I'm round the table.

“I feel a lot younger around the table than I do when I'm playing these young players, they look old!

“Their brains are quite slow, so for me, I still feel like my brain is still pretty quick around the snooker table, which is enough.

“They need to get their acts together because I'm going blind, I've got a dodgy arm and bad knees - they still can't beat me!”