Stephen Hendry thinks Ronnie O’Sullivan nonetheless has an opportunity to win this season’s World Snooker Championship in Sheffield.
The Rocket has had just one aggressive outing in 2025 thus far, making an ill-fated look on the Championship League Snooker invitational in January.
O’Sullivan misplaced 4 out of the 5 video games he performed in Leicester earlier than pulling out of the competitors, snapping his cue and dumping it within the bin in frustration together with his kind.
Since then, the 49 year-old skipped his defence of the distinguished Masters and withdrew from a succession of different occasions.
An absence of taking part in time and rating factors has resulted in his failure to qualify for the Gamers and Tour Championships on the again finish of the marketing campaign.
Doubts proceed to linger on whether or not or not he’ll truly flip as much as compete within the 2025 version of the World Snooker Championship.
But it surely wouldn’t be the primary time that O’Sullivan has rocked as much as the Crucible Theatre missing aggressive match sharpness solely to prevail.
In 2013, O’Sullivan memorably defended his World Championship crown having taken virtually the complete 2012/13 snooker season off.
Whereas fellow seven-time world champion Hendry thinks O’Sullivan’s job can be even more durable this time round, the Scot doesn’t write off the likelihood totally.
“He clearly did it earlier than, didn’t he? He had a 12 months off,” Stephen Hendry mentioned on the newest episode of the Snooker Membership Podcast.
“However he was a a lot youthful man, and there wasn’t the gamers round which can be in such kind.”
“Hear, there have been nonetheless nice gamers. However I feel there are extra nice gamers succesful now of profitable.
“There’s six or seven simply that you would rely and possibly extra who’re able to profitable it.
“I fancy Selby to win it, [but] one in all my sizzling takes was going to be that Ronnie goes to show up and win it.
“If we simply cease to suppose, what a narrative it might be. All these gamers – Wilson and Trump profitable all these tournaments, Robertson again, Selby, Higgins again.
“Ronnie simply decides that he’s simply going to show as much as the Worlds and win it. It will be an unbelievable story.
“He’s that good. I bear in mind when he did it earlier than, when he had the 12 months out, he messaged me and mentioned, ‘do you suppose I can nonetheless come again and do it?’
“I mentioned, ‘in fact you possibly can. All you want is a month’s stable apply.’ It’s the identical this time.
“I don’t know what his cue state of affairs is, as a result of clearly he smashed his final one.
“But when he had like a month behind closed doorways training and placing the work in, getting himself sharp, in fact he can be one of many high two or three favourites to win it. It will be unbelievable.”
Ronnie O’Sullivan gained the final of his seven World Championship titles in 2022 when he beat Judd Trump 18-13 within the ultimate.
He has exited on the quarter-final stage within the final two campaigns, dropping to eventual winner Luca Brecel in 2023 and struggling a shock loss to Stuart Bingham on the similar stage in 2024.
The venue levels of the 2025 World Snooker Championship run from April nineteenth to Might fifth, with Judd Trump and Kyren Wilson considered the 2 betting favourites for glory.
Featured photograph credit score: WST
