Ronnie O’Sullivan ‘lacks respect’ as new snooker rival blasts Rocket | Other | Sport
Snooker’s newest tour card recipient Antoni Kowalski has taken another shot at Ronnie O’Sullivan, claiming that the seven-time world champion “lacks respect” after previously describing the Rocket as “arrogant”.
O’Sullivan is currently in China as he attempts to defend his Shanghai Masters title, coming through a first-round with 16-year-old home star Zhou Jinhao 6-1 on Tuesday. The 48-year-old has won the last four editions of the tournament and set up a quarter-final with either fierce rival Ali Carter or Ding Junhui.
But another foe has emerged as Polish starlet Kowalski, who graduated to the World Snooker Tour for the first time last month, brutally explained why a lack of “respect” is why the 20-year-old omitted O’Sullivan from his list of inspirations.
“I was lucky enough to meet Shaun [Murphy] and Mark Selby when I was six or seven years old – they were the first pros I met,” Kowalski said on the Framed Snooker Podcast. “They came to my home city for an exhibition, and I was not ranking players level-wise or snooker-wise. I was ranking them as characters and how good of a person they were.
“Shaun is a great person and other guys like John Higgins – I met him a couple of years later. In the other interviews, the interviewer asked me about Ronnie because I also said about Shaun and John.
“He said I didn’t mention about Ronnie and that I’m the first person he knows that didn’t mention Ronnie. I don’t like Ronnie for his character, just because sometimes he lacks the respect. That’s it. I don’t have anything against Ronnie, just to be clear.
“He’s the greatest ever to play snooker, of course. But talking about numpties a couple of years back – I would never do that and I don’t see any other player doing that.
“That’s just it. Apart from that, I don’t have anything against him. If it’s possible, I will tell him straight to his face and we can become friends.”
O’Sullivan famously branded lower-ranked snooker players as “numpties” in 2017, which he has received plenty of backlash for, including a critique from a possible opponent this season.
It is not the first time that Kowalski has spoken out against O’Sullivan, however, telling the Metro after earning his tour card that a “pretty arrogant” Rocket is not someone he admires away from the cloth.
“I don’t know how to say it, but he’s pretty arrogant,” said Kowalski of O’Sullivan. “He’s a good guy, genius on the table for sure, he’s one of the best players of all time, but he’s not one of my favourites, if I put it like that.”
