Ronnie O'Sullivan and Shaun Murphy do battle in Premier League
Premier League snooker returns tonight for week four, and there are two fantastic matches on offer at the Brentwood Leisure Centre in Essex.
Reigning Masters champion Mark Selby takes on current UK champion Ding Junhui, while the clash of the evening is a repeat of last year’s Premier League final between champion Shaun Murphy and Ronnie O’Sullivan.
O’Sullivan and Murphy have both won world and UK championships, and have met many times before, but this game will matter to both players. O’Sullivan is looking for revenge after losing 7-3 to Murphy in last year’s final. Unusually, O’Sullivan hasn’t won a match having played twice, while Murphy has a win and a defeat so far.
Murphy has added even more spice to this mouth-watering encounter by coming out this week branding O’Sullivan as “pathetic, unprofessional and disrespectful” following O’Sullivan’s refusal to pot the final black for a 147 maximum at the recent World Open in Glasgow.
O’Sullivan was persuaded to pot the black by referee Jan Verhaas after he staged a protest against no prize-money being made available for the 147, which he knew of before the tournament started.
While O’Sullivan said he was just having some fun, Murphy was not pleased about the Rocket’s actions. “I thought it was pathetic, unprofessional. It was disrespectful to the public who had paid to come and watch him play,” said Murphy. “£4,000 [prize for highest-break] is a lot of money to a lot of people. It was bad taste.”
Murphy could well have fired up O’Sullivan for tonight, and went on to say he is beginning to get annoyed by his antics on the table. “I'm a bit tired of all this 'Ronnie's Ronnie' stuff. I don't subscribe to it, that he should be allowed to get away with it. There's no doubt Ronnie is the biggest draw in snooker and he is the person everyone flocks to watch. Snooker is better with Ronnie than without. He creates a buzz and I enjoy playing him.
“We play in the Premier League... as far as the players are concerned he is the benchmark even though he is not no.1. But from a bloke's perspective, I watched what he did on TV and didn't like it. Some of my mates thought it was quite funny when I told them but for the people who saw it, it was quite offensive,” said Murphy.
O’Sullivan will no doubt be desperate to get one over Murphy and give the crowd something to get excited about following the latter’s comments.
Selby beat reigning world champion and newly-crowned world No.1 Neil Robertson 4-2 last week, making breaks of 53, 104 and 119. After he lost his first match against Mark Williams, Selby played extremely well and showed why he is the Masters champion, making the big breaks at crucial times during the game.
Ding suffered a 5-1 hammering to Murphy in week one, and then battled for a point against O’Sullivan. Last week, he played out a 3-3 draw against an in-form Williams, making breaks of 68 and 65 after coming from 2-0 down.
Ding is yet to win a game so far in this year’s Premier League, but has played at his best in the draws against O’Sullivan and Williams and was unlucky not to win at least one of those games. A match against the Jester from Lester could go all the way, and Ding might have to settle for another draw.
Predictions: Ronnie O’Sullivan 4 Shaun Murphy 2, Mark Selby 3 Ding Junhui 3
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