What could be more
enjoyable than a Saturday morning?
Being at Sheffield,
in front of Crucible Theatre, waiting for the opening of a new edition of Snooker World Championship.
And if you have tickets
to Ronnie O'Sullivan’s match,
the defending champion who "opens
the ball" (as it is the tradition at Crucible
for 36 years), then you can consider
yourself blessed by destiny, because only 446 people had the
opportunity to watch the first
session of the Ronnie O'Sullivan -
Marcus Campbell match from the arena. And I was one
of those who counted down "five,
four, three, two, one", when
the master of ceremonies, Rob Walker, said: "blink and you'll miss him, «The Rocket» Ronnie
O'Sullivan".
Ronnie has been talked
and written about many times. He
is almost always presented by Rob Walker
as "the most naturally gifted
snooker player of
all times",
"an absolute genius with a cue in his hand". Although
many criticize him for what
he often says, no one can fail to
recognize his talent. If you know nothing about
this sport and one day you
turn on the TV and you see Ronnie, then snooker
will seem to you like a child's play and that
you could almost tell yourself it's enough to take a
cue in your hand to become a world champion. Seeing Ronnie playing is like wiping
with a sponge all the thousands of
hours of training
that are necesary to lift overhead the most
coveted snooker trophy, the one for
World Champion. To him everything comes easily and naturally. It seems that the cue
is a part of his
body. He moves it from one hand to another, and hits equally accurately with both right and left hand.
I discovered
Ronnie in 2003, and since then I have
become an incurable fan of his game. I love
snooker, but I adore Ronnie's
game! I am pleased to see a match between two professional
snooker players, but, when Ronnie
is playing, I live authentically every shot! He is the
one that made me "calculate"
a match not in points or frames, but in increased pulse, fists clenched, endless applause, a great joy and
a smile that leaves
me smiling dumbly for days after I see
Ronnie raising the
world champion trophy once again.
I don’t know
what I did in January 2004, but I
still remember the emotions I experienced in Masters's final,
played by Ronnie and
lost to the regretted Paul Hunter. Something
similar has happened with all the
finals I saw Ronnie live, from the autumn of 2003. 31 finals, of
which he won 22 (4 World Championship). I remember living each of those with various, unclassifiable
feelings, because in everyone of those Ronnie was different and yet the same. The same twinkle, the same genius!
I felt like in seventh heaven after his victories in
the World Championship and after his each achievement of a new maximum break,
but I felt a cold chill and then boiling sadness, as if I fell very low, in the
center of the earth, after he was defeated in Masters finals, against John
Higgins in 2006, and against Mark Selby in 2010 (both lost in the decisive
frame), and also after the quarter-finals of 2005 World Championship (after the
match against Peter Ebdon, in which he stalled the time to it’s limits, succeeding
in making O'Sullivan go crazy and climb on his chair) or in the quarter
final of 2006 UK Championship (when, before the game ended, he shook hands with
his opponent from that match, the great Stephen Hendry, and inexplicably left
the arena).
As he himself says,
Ronnie has always had "ups and downs". He is
the greatest snooker talent,
but he has never really had control over his mind. But at 36,
in 2012, O'Sullivan admitted he needs outside
help and turned to Dr. Steve Peters, who polished
his concentration and self-confidence,
and so Ronnie succeded an amazing
performance: winning a total of
five world titles. The last two are consecutive
(2012-2013), with the last one coming after
Ronnie had his sabbatical
year. This success was possible because, above all, snooker is a sport of the mind and Steve Peters
made order in Ronnie’s head. Because
the game is in him, he was born with it, but in order to make his
twinkle seen from the outside, Ronnie
had to fight his demons his entire
career.
This beautiful
snooker fanatic, this brilliant and rebellious child, made me live
this sport, not
only love it. I live it intensely, authentic, as
Ronnie himself is. He can be
criticized for many things, but of one thing he can’t be accused:
that he is not true, that he is not
himself every second. Ronnie says and does things
not because of the appearances, not
because "it is customary"
and not because it is expected of
him. Ronnie expresses himself in every moment. He didn’t
and he doesn’t want to seem different than he is. Even if you don’t like seeing
him pick his nose or scratching himself, or always hearing him say that
he has had enough of snooker and he wants to retire. But that's Ronnie!
He does and says what he feels at
that moment! And to be honest and
to show yourself to others exactly the way you really are,
is a quality so rare today.
(This article was published in Romanian on LiterNet)
