Ronnie O’Sullivan demanded “I’m no hotshot” in the wake of cruising into the Crucible semi-finals for a record thirteenth time by wrapping up a 13-5 win over Stephen Maguire.
The 46-year-old rolled out breaks of 71 and 126 in the initial two edges of the morning meeting to outperform the record he had imparted to Stephen Hendry for arriving at the last four. However, in spite of shutting on imitating Hendry’s record of seven world titles, O’Sullivan is inflexible that the Scot’s predominance of the game during the 1990s still makes him the best.
“Stephen is an untouched legend for me, the best player,” O’Sullivan told the BBC. “He was the Tiger Woods of snooker. Me, John [Higgins] and Mark [Williams] have all gotten along admirably, however when he was flying he was a whiz. At the point when there’s three of us, we’re not whizzes. Be that as it may, when there’s one man ruling the game as he enjoyed, Tiger Woods, it’s an alternate level.”
O’Sullivan had cut a directing lead in spite of never fully hitting excellent condition against Scottish qualifier Maguire on Tuesday, however showed looks at his best upon the resumption after a missed dark from his adversary fixed his destiny. It was one more telling win from O’Sullivan, who began the competition by losing the initial three casings of his first-round match to David Gilbert prior to raging back to beat the previous semi-finalist and blow away Mark Allen in cycle two.
O’Sullivan, who will play either Higgins or Jack Lisowski in the last four, portrayed his presentation as “workmanlike”, however said he was anticipating getting back to the Crucible’s one-table set-up on Thursday.
“It’s workmanlike more than streaming, however I’ve needed to figure out how to consistent the boat and I feel that is the way to being steady – having the option to limit the terrible spells,” he said. “I’m anticipating it. With regards to the one-table set-up you can loosen up somewhat more, I’m energized still to be in the competition and to arrive.”
