Australia has a new sporting hero
With snooker in the dark following the allegations that John Higgins agreed to lose frames for money, Neil Robertson’s 18-13 win over Graeme Dott in the world championship final, the showpiece occasion for the sport, was overshadowed.
The Crucible crown was the Australian’s fifth ranking title, and produced Australia’s first official world champion. The victory propelled him to No. 2 in the world rankings, although he is at No. 1 now following the suspension of Higgins.
Robertson had the whole weight of his home country on his shoulders over the 17 days, and the support he has received back home has been overwhelming. “It’s absolutely fantastic. I must have had about a 100 messages so far. The reception from back home has been incredible. The TV crews have been outside my Dad’s house and all the biggest newspapers have been interviewing him and my brother and the rest of my family,” said the 28-year-old.
Robertson will now be the face of snooker for Australia, following in the footsteps of the late Eddie Charlton. World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association chairman Barry Hearn said: “Robertson, not sure about the haircut, but he is the modern face of snooker. Kids all around the world want to be Robertson, we are live in Australia as well.”
The popularity of snooker doesn’t rank as high as Aussie rules, horse racing, cricket and rugby league Down Under, but Robertson is set to change that, similar to Greg Norman’s achievements in golf. The Great White Shark’s success gave the sport far greater exposure in his home country. He spent over 330 weeks at the top of the world rankings between the 1980s and 1990s, won two majors, both at the Open Championship, and finished runner-up seven times in the other major championships.
“Obviously there's a lot of added responsibility now. It's not just here but for the people back home as well. I've probably been dealing with it anyway because I've been representing Australia, and if there was any hope of more Australian players coming through I had to have a good reputation. That's definitely important and it's something I'm going to have to handle. It's a really big responsibility and it comes with the package,” said Robertson.
Robertson hopes snooker can thrive in Australia. The world championship was staged in Australia in 1975, but since then no tournaments have existed. “I've got a lot of work ahead of me to try to make the most of this with Australia. We have been close to staging tournaments, money hasn't been quite there and perhaps all that was missing was the promoters back home didn't have a world champion. Now that's happened, hopefully something can happen now,” Robertson said.
With the birth of his child due anytime now, Robertson has travelled to Oslo, Norway, to be there for his girlfriend Millie. Being world champion and a father in the same week doesn’t happen very often. “I was thinking there's no way in the world the snooker gods are going to allow me to be world champion and then a dad a few days after, it's just not going to happen. But it's absolutely incredible, an amazing feeling. I'm sure I'm going to go through a few emotions over the next week or so as well,” said Robertson.
Now Australia has a snooker world champion, the next thing is to make it a popular sport, with The Thunder from Down Under at the helm.
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