World Snooker Championship 2025: Ronnie O’Sullivan undoubtedly a contender, says Stephen Hendry

Stephen Hendry is satisfied Ronnie O’Sullivan is displaying the shape that would convey him a record-breaking eighth World Championship title in Sheffield.

Scottish nice Hendry was the Crucible king within the Nineteen Nineties, and he and Englishman O’Sullivan collectively maintain the document of triumphing seven instances on the well-known venue.

However that would change within the subsequent 10 days as O’Sullivan chases the eighth world title of his profession.

A brisk 10-4 victory towards Ali Carter in spherical one allowed O’Sullivan to brush off the cobwebs, having not performed in skilled competitors since snapping his cue in frustration on the state of his recreation in January. He has additionally been combating what he termed “stage fright”.

On Saturday, O’Sullivan begins his second-round match towards 25-year-old Chinese language participant Pang Junxu, who beat Zhang Anda in his opener.

The competition begins at 14:30 BST and spans three periods throughout three days, ending on Monday night.

So long as O’Sullivan’s focus holds, his prospects look more and more good as a result of his recreation appeared in respectable form towards Carter.

It does his trophy possibilities no hurt that Kyren Wilson, Mark Selby and Mark Allen have all been knocked out of his half of the draw.

Hendry already likes O’Sullivan’s possibilities.

He instructed World Snooker Tour’s Snooker Membership podcast: “Regardless that he’ll deflect away from his probabilities of profitable this factor, I feel the best way he performed [against Carter] undoubtedly reveals he’s a contender.

“So I am actually trying ahead to seeing how he performs the remainder of the championship.”

Six-time champion Steve Davis considers snooker’s 17-day ‘marathon of the thoughts’ an altogether contemporary problem now the first-round stage has been navigated.

Talking on BBC 4, Davis stated those that have handed that examination of their credentials ought to be capable of compete with out feeling overly fearful now the matches have shifted from best-of-19 to best-of-25-frame contests.

There’s larger scope for recovering from a dip in type over the longer matches.

“I do not suppose you strategy it in another way, however you might be extra relaxed from not having the panic of the primary spherical,” Davis stated.

“You recognize you have to have an in a single day sleep on a lead or a deficit and that may generally play its half.

“However simply to be extra relaxed, in as a lot as you’ve got received an extended match, is useful, as a result of you do not have anyplace close to as a lot of a panic when you have a foul mini-session or session.”

On the age of 49, O’Sullivan could be snooker’s oldest world champion if he takes the title on 5 Might. He already holds that document following his victory towards Judd Trump three years in the past.