‘The best it’s ever been’ – Neil Robertson thrilled with preparation ahead of World Snooker Championship

Former world champion Neil Robertson has said that his preparation for the Crucible is the ‘best it’s ever been’ after having more time than usual to prep for the showpiece event of the season.

Robertson, the 2010 champion, has missed parts of the season with illness and whilst it hasn’t been enough to knock him out of the top 16 it did see him miss a couple of the tournaments before the World Championship starts.

Speaking to Eurosport’s Rachel Casey ahead of the tournament Robertson said there was something special about the Crucible, and he was happy with the way he had prepared.

The Australian said: “Yeah, it is [different and special]. Whether you’ve had a good season, bad season, indifferent season, as soon as you punch in the Crucible on your SatNav, you get very excited, as I did this morning driving up. So yeah, different coming in this year to last year, off the back of winning the Players Champs and Tour Champs, I guess you could say I’ve had a good sort of four weeks to prepare for this, the first time, kind of ever really.

“A lot of the time coming in I’ve won the big, massive tournament before. Whereas this time, you know, I looked at the calendar, I’m like ‘okay, I’m not in those two events. I need to make the most of the time.’

“And I’ve absolutely done that. My preparation is probably the best it’s ever been coming in here. Setting up practice sessions with other players, playing a lot my own multiple sessions every day playing morning and night. Never done that before.”

Robertson revealed he had been practicing with the likes of Stuart Bingham and Chris Wakelin saying that he had “Set up a few sessions for them, which was really good, and just practising a lot, a couple of times a day to try and replicate what you do here.

“I think that you know, a lot of the time coming here, it’s always been one of the multiple sessions that have sort of where I’ve been a bit lethargic, didn’t play particularly well. So you need to be ready to play at all times of the day.”

Robertson admitted that he thought that his failure to prepare over the years had been what cost him from repeating his success from over a decade ago.

He said: “No, that’s right. You know, [Mark] Selby, and Ronnie [O’Sullivan], they’ve won the lion’s share of them over the last 10 years. So there haven’t been too many other players who’ve been able to get their hands on it.

“But I think that probably combination of probably preparation. Well I’d say a massive part of preparation has been one of the reasons why for sure. But this time, you know, I’ve had four weeks to prepare as well as I can. Even [partner] Mila and the kids have been in Norway for a couple of weeks for Easter. So, you know, no early mornings, or anything like that to deal with. So preparation has been amazing. I couldn’t have done any better, and certainly no stone unturned.”

Robertson did say that he wasn’t worried about coming into the tournament slightly under the radar because at a certain point if you haven’t been knocked out then the pressure will come.

“No, I like being under pressure,” he said. “Like anyone who is used to winning deals with it just fine, you like being under pressure, and at some point at a tournament anyway, you’re gonna become the favourite.

“I could play my match tomorrow and knock in five, six centuries in the opening round all the sudden, you’re not under the radar anymore. You could knock in a 147 and you’re in there straightaway and I’m ready for that, that’s no problem.

“And that never has been a problem, never has simply been about sort of pressure. I think, ultimately, probably my preparation for this event maybe hasn’t been as good as probably what it could have been. And that’s certainly not gonna be the case [this year].”

Robertson will face Wu Yize in the first round and he spoke about how playing a debutant isn’t the same benefit that it used to be in the past because of the rise of players lower down in the rankings.

He said: “Yeah, I mean, I remember when I was in my first years playing as a top-16 player, where you’re the seed and you’re waiting for the draw to come out, you always hope to kind of play somebody maybe inexperienced.

“But the debutants play a lot better than what they ever have here. They used to freeze a lot, you still see it occasionally but very seldom now compared to what it used to be, people used to come and just be like ‘I’m gonna take my towel that was given to me for the match and that’s my memento, I’m just here for a good time.’ Now players are coming here to win, coming in to win the matches and go further.

“So I remember playing Ashley Hugill, last year as a debutant, okay, that’s quite good getting a debutant, someone inexperienced.

“And then he comes out and he comes out down the stairs and he’s like the happiest person in Sheffield. And I’m thinking ‘oh, my God, you know, he’s loving it’, and I was 3-1 down and he was playing flawless.

“And then I turned the match around, I put him under pressure and then played really well to win. So it’s going to be the same, I just have to be prepared for anything. I’m ready if he doesn’t play well, and I’m ready if he does play well, so it’s more about how I play I think, I can’t really go into it hoping that he struggles because if you do that, and then they don’t struggle that puts you in a bad place mentally.

“So yeah, I’m expecting him to play well and enjoy the experience. And so I have to match that and play well myself.”

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