Ronnie O’Sullivan soars into world semis and plays as a ‘superstar’

Ronnie O’Sullivan insisted “I’m no superstar” after cruising into the Crucible semi-finals for a record 13th time by wrapping up a 13-5 win over Stephen Maguire.

The 46-years-old reeled off breaks of 71 and 126 inside the first two frames of the morning consultation to surpass the report he had shared with Stephen Hendry for reaching the closing 4. But, regardless of remaining on emulating Hendry’s record of seven international titles, O’Sullivan is adamant that Scot’s dominance of the sport inside the Nineties still makes him the best.

“Stephen is an all-time legend for me, the greatest player,” O’Sullivan told the BBC. “He was the Tiger Woods of snooker. Me, John [Higgins], and Mark [Williams] have all done well, but when he was flying he was a superstar. When there are three of us, we’re not superstars. But when there’s one man dominating the sport as he did, like Tiger Woods, it’s a different level.”

O’Sullivan had carved a commanding lead in spite of by no means pretty hitting pinnacle form against Scottish qualifier Maguire on Tuesday but showed glimpses of his high-quality upon the resumption after a missed black from his opponent sealed his destiny. It become every other commanding win from O’Sullivan, who started the event by losing the first 3 frames of his first-spherical match to David Gilbert before storming returned to overcome the former semi-finalist and blow away Mark Allen in spherical.

O’Sullivan, who will play either Higgins or Jack Lisowski within the ultimate 4, described his performance as “workmanlike”, however, stated he changed into searching forward to returning to the Crucible’s one-desk set-up on Thursday.

“It’s workmanlike more than flowing, but I’ve had to learn to steady the ship and I think that’s the key to being consistent – being able to minimize the bad spells,” he said. “I am looking forward to it. When it comes to the one-table set-up you can relax a bit more, and I’m excited still to be in the tournament and to get there.”