Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump, Neil Robertson, Mark Selby: Time running out for ‘big four’ to turn season around

The Tour Championship at the end of this month is snooker’s most elite event, for just the eight best players of the season. You would have got long odds when the campaign began that the game’s recognised ‘big four’ would all be missing from the field in Hull, but with one counting tournament to go, that is now a realistic prospect.

Ronnie O’Sullivan, Mark Selby, Neil Robertson and Judd Trump have established their dominance over snooker’s major events during the last decade.

Of the last 16 World Championships dating back to 2007, only two have been won by someone else – Stuart Bingham in 2015 and Mark Williams in 2018. In addition, between them, the big four have won 26 of the last 35 ‘triple crown’ titles, encompassing the World and UK Championships and the Masters.

But this season, only one has won a ranking title. Selby prevailed at the English Open last December, otherwise, all four have largely underperformed in counting events, bearing in mind they have won 106 between them.

The cut-off for the Tour Championship comes after the WST Classic – the replacement event for the cancelled Turkish Masters – next week. Selby is currently in eighth place on the one-year ranking list. Trump is 12th and so will need to reach the final of the Classic. Robertson (20th) and O’Sullivan (21st) would each have to win it.

So what has gone wrong for the ‘big four’?

Snooker has become an unpredictable sport in recent times, with more players than ever capable of producing title-winning performances. Top players can no longer expect to glide through early rounds in a low gear, especially in shorter format events where mistakes can be more significant.

There’s a hunger through the ranks and less fear than there once was. Look at how coolly the previously unheralded Joe O’Connor took out Robertson in their Scottish Open semi-final. Daniel Wells, playing under amateur status, did not flinch when he beat Trump recently at the Welsh Open.

But it’s not just lower-ranked players making their move. An authentic challenger to the big four has emerged at the top of the game in the slimmed-down shape of Mark Allen, who came into the season having sorted out various off-table issues and feeling good about his snooker again.

Allen has been like a man possessed all season, winning the Northern Ireland Open, UK Championship and World Grand Prix and finishing runner-up in the British Open. He has risen to third in the official rankings, knocking Trump down to fifth. In the one-year standings, Allen has more than double the number of points than second-placed Shaun Murphy.

Players who have been quiet for a while have come good again. Murphy is the most obvious example of this, recently winning the Players Championship with one of the best performances of his career. Ali Carter won his first ranking title in seven years at the German Masters while Robert Milkins enjoyed a financial windfall by landing the Welsh Open and European Series bonus prize.

While these riches and trophies were being handed out, the big four were mainly watching from the sidelines.

Robertson’s struggles are perhaps the most surprising given that he has been a regular tournament winner since he broke through by capturing the Grand Prix in 2006.

Last season, Robertson won four big titles, including the Tour Championship. The current campaign has been a barren one. The Australian has reached three ranking event semi-finals without progressing further. His only success came at the World Mixed Doubles, which he won with Mink Nutcharut last September.

Robertson had enjoyed such a productive campaign last season that he elected to take some quality time off in the summer. He missed the first three ranking events as a result and so had to make up ground on the one-year list. Even so, most assumed he would win a title but he possibly lost some sharpness through a lack of competition. A couple of ill-timed heavy colds didn’t help his cause at the UK Championship or the Masters.

In the end, he left himself with too much to do to even get in the 16-man Players Championship last month, another tournament he won last season.

Trump, who has won 18 professional titles since November 2018, has at times received some bizarre criticism. In two seasons he won 11 ranking events, a remarkable haul of success, but there were snipes that he was not winning the triple crown tournaments.

This season, Trump did win one of them, the Masters, but the critics countered that he wasn’t being successful in the circuit’s other events. Sometimes you can’t win, even when you do.

Trump had a golden chance to win the World Grand Prix. Having fought back from 8-4 down to Mark Allen, he missed a yellow in the decider when victory looked a formality. Otherwise, he has not been able to summon his formidable A-game enough, a common problem this season for each member of the big four.

Selby endured an emotional 2022 as he dealt with some long-buried mental health issues. He seemed to have turned a corner by winning the English Open but spoke at the Players Championship of undisclosed off-table matters currently affecting his focus.

O’Sullivan has had a glorious career but there always seems to be a step back in the year where he is the defending world champion, an almost subconscious reset after the rigours of climbing snooker’s ultimate mental marathon.

In the seven seasons where he has been the reigning world champion, O’Sullivan has won seven ranking titles from a career total of 39.

However, O’Sullivan has come good in big-money events on the grand stages, none larger than in Hong Kong in front of a record 9,500 fans. He also won the Champion of Champions from a field made up of last season’s title winners.

The fact is, though, that when it has come to the business end of most tournaments this season, the previously reliable trophy-winning quartet have been missing.

The big question for the big four is whether any of them can come good at the one venue where reputations are ultimately made, Sheffield’s Crucible theatre. Success there renders any struggles earlier in the season redundant.

The World Championship is just a few weeks away. You would have to be brave, more likely daft, to write off the chances of O’Sullivan, Selby, Trump and Robertson, even if all four are missing from the Tour Championship.

The Crucible has its own ecosystem removed from the rest of the snooker calendar. Its longer matches, greater focus and high prestige clearly favour the very best players.

Before Sheffield, O’Sullivan and Trump are in Thailand this week for the Six Reds World Championship, a short-form version of the game. There’s a six-figure first prize but it’s also a relaxed environment with no rankings pressure.

Then it’s back to business as the season enters its final act. There’s still a chance for each member of the ‘big four’ to turn a disappointing campaign into a memorable one – but time is running out.

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