Jamie Clarke admits he’s disappointed by Ronnie O’Sullivan’s Welsh Open withdrawal because he doesn’t know if he’ll get a chance to play the Rocket again.
Seven-time world champion O’Sullivan announced that he had pulled out of the tournament just four hours before he was due to play Clarke in Llandudno, leaving fans worried. The Rocket had withdrawn from the Masters in a similar style, just 48 hours before he was due to play Wizard of Wishaw John Higgins, fuelling rumours that he could be about to retire. That came after a difficult Championship League, where he snapped a cue and kicked a table before quitting.
It comes as a boost to world No.65 Clarke as he gets a bye to the second round, but the Welshman admitted there was some disappointment at not getting the chance to challenge one of snooker’s greats. He told the BBC: “There was a part of me that was relishing the opportunity, maybe about 20 percent of me was disappointed because he’s coming to the end of his career, and you don’t get many chances to play Ronnie.
“He picks and chooses his events, and rightly so, but I was probably more happy than not happy. Although it would’ve been nice to play him. I’ve been putting a lot of work in, been practising a lot with Jamie Jones and had a new games with Liam Davis over the last month especially since the new year. I’ve been putting in the hours, doing a lot of best of sevens. I went to the qualifiers full of confidence. But you can never tell if you’ll be able to take playing well in practice out there.”
Asked about how much he enjoyed playing in his home tournament, Clarke added: “When Jamie (Jones) and I are both in a tournament we can go for dinner, go for a coffee and we can both push each other on. When you’re practicing and you’re on the tour it can be quite lonely, so it would be good to put in a performance in my next game and establish myself in the tournament. That would be nice to get myself into the later rounds.”
12-time women’s world champion Reanne Evans, a pundit for the BBC during the tournament, continued: “For the players that say they really wanted to play Ronnie, they are lying. He needs the ranking points and if they are given to you on a plate then you’d accept it with both hands. But he did say he was a little bit disappointed because you never know when you’ll get to play Ronnie.
“It is a brilliant experience, don’t get me wrong, but when you’re not the favourite to win that match you’re happy for anything that goes your way. It’s all about that little bit of luck not just in matches but in ranking points as well.”
Fellow pundit Neal Foulds added: “It’s great when you can go out there in front of a big audience playing the game’s greatest player. But you’ve got to have the mentality to do that, it’s a great thrill. But when you do need ranking points if you can get a bye then it’s a big help.”