Shaun Murphy’s 30-year feud with Ronnie O’Sullivan shows no signs of being repaired
Shaun Murphy confessed last year that he still harbours resentment towards Ronnie O’Sullivan for alleged “verbal abuse” he endured from the snooker legend when he was just 12 years old. The two athletes have known each other since the 1990s, with O’Sullivan, now 50, seven years older than Murphy, 43.
Murphy, the current Masters champion, turned professional towards the end of that decade, by which time ‘the Rocket’ had already established himself as one of the world’s top snooker players, boasting seven ranking titles by 1999. However, an incident from Murphy’s childhood left a lasting impression on his perception of the snooker superstar.
In a chat with journalist David Hendon for his book Pots of Gold: A History of Snooker, Murphy revealed the origins of their fallout, which occurred when he was just 12. “We fell out when I was young,” Murphy shared.
“Ronnie verbally abused me when I was 12 and I never forgave him. I vividly remember it.” Despite this, Murphy expressed admiration for O’Sullivan’s skill on the green baize. “I still have immense respect for his levels of play as a snooker player,” he added.
“I watch in awe at the things he’s able to do, because I know how hard it is. His ability as a player is completely unmatched.” While he didn’t delve into the specifics of their disagreement, Murphy criticised O’Sullivan for not doing more to promote snooker, contrasting him with tennis icons Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic who have significantly contributed to the growth of their sport.
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“He’s the biggest needle-mover in the sport, the biggest we’ve ever seen,” Murphy declared. “That brings you some forgiveness. When the golden goose lays the golden egg, you get treated differently.
“There’s no question over the years that various chairmen have treated him more leniently over his offences because of the attention he brings to snooker, and commercially that’s probably correct.
“But one of the reasons I idolised Steve Davis so much was I was brought up in a world where being the greatest meant a lot more than how good you were at playing snooker, and unfortunately, for all of the good things Ronnie has done in terms of his snooker ability, I think he’s done an equal amount of, if not more, damage to the sport from an ambassadorial point of view.
“I think it’s such a shame that he hasn’t done for snooker in his ambassadorial position the things that people he says he looks up to – like Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic – have done, that he hasn’t taken a leaf out of their book and treated the sport that’s given him so much the same level of respect.
“If he had used his platform for good, he could have single-handedly dragged snooker into a different stratosphere in terms of popularity. He could have made us much more mainstream.”
The snooker stars will be back on the baize in the Masters this week. Murphy starts his title defence against Wu Yize on Sunday, while O’Sullivan faces off against Neil Robertson on Wednesday.
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