3 minute read
Neil Robertson, one of the world snooker championship favourites, says he just wasn't good enough after the Australian departed at the quarter-final stage.
Neil Robertson's frustrating wait to regain the world snooker title goes on - and the Australian reckoned he had absolutely no excuses after blowing one of his best chances to break his long title drought at the Crucible.
Robertson has been in supreme form this season and was widely fancied to win the title again after an 11-year wait as he moved with style into the quarter-finals.
Yet when it came to the crunch session of his last-eight tussle with Kyren Wilson on Wednesday, after the pair started out level at 8-8, the man from Melbourne was found wanting as he lost all the first five frames and the match 13-8.
It was a dispiriting capitulation as his best form deserted the usually immaculate Robertson - and he was not about to make excuses afterwards.
"I just wasn't good enough - simple as that," the 39-year-old told Eurosport.
It's been one of the sport's great mysteries why Robertson, such a prolific tournament winner elsewhere, has had such a relative lack of success at Sheffield's global showpiece down the years.
Ever since he won the trophy in 2010, he's only once reached the semi-finals once, and one of the reasons, he speculated again after his defeat, was that the small arena is just too tight for him when two tables are in use, so it cramps his shot set-up.
The one-table format, which gives players much more space to play, only kicks in at the semi-final stage.
"'I know a lot of players don't like the set-up, it's very cramped, not much room. Whether I'll have to change my technique slightly so I'm not always backing into those walls, I don't know," he shrugged.
"It's just something I have to deal with. It's just on me - no excuses."
Robertson didn't want to take anything away from Englishman Wilson, last year's finalist, who was exceptional in the final session, opening with a 133 clearance and breaks of 59 and 62 before sealing the win after the interval with an 84.
"Neil's class. For me he's the best cueist on tour," said Wilson. "If I was going to coach a youngster, I'd say model your game off Neil Robertson, the best technique by far.
"I knew I was going to go through it but I believe in myself, I'm quite a gritty player and I'll keep fighting to the end."
Wilson will next play the 2005 world champion Shaun Murphy who caused a big surprise, knocking out the world No.1 Judd Trump 13-11.
Mark Selby also advanced to the semi-finals, thrashing fellow three-time champion Mark Williams with a session to spare, completing a superb 13-3 victory which identified him as the tournament's man to beat.
The 'Jester from Leicester' will next play Stuart Bingham, who edged a final frame decider with Anthony McGill to book his place in the last-four for the first time since he won the title in 2015.
