In the world snooker tour, to say who is O’Sullivan’s strongest opponent at present, then Selby will definitely be that best answer. Selby has been a constant headache for O’Sullivan over the years, and since 2014, when Selby beat O’Sullivan to win the world title and O’Sullivan complained after the match that Selby was playing too slowly, the matchups between the two players have always been full of stories. The controversy between them mainly stems from the huge difference in their respective styles of play. Selby is currently the best defensive player, O’Sullivan is the best offensive player, the two players will always be the focus of the showdown.
Selby’s form has been significantly poor this season, and despite his recent title win, in O’Sullivan’s opinion he is still the most difficult opponent to beat. Even though O’Sullivan has won a number of tournaments this season, it is still very difficult to beat Selby. Not long ago in the Players Championship, Selby swept O’Sullivan, who had his best performance of the season, 6-0. O’Sullivan only hit a single 58 points, while Selby had four sets of one-shot wins. Against such a powerful Selby, O’Sullivan’s ability to fight back was limited. Selby’s excellent defense still put O’Sullivan under pressure.
Although O’Sullivan is stronger than Selby in terms of overall strength, Selby’s playing style is more reasonable in real life. He is good at defense to find the opponent’s cracks, and then seize the opportunity to launch a counterattack. Even if his condition is not good, he is difficult to be defeated. On the contrary, O’Sullivan is more inclined to open up the situation through the offense, and continue to pressure the opponent. Once O’Sullivan plays strongly, he tends to crush his opponents quickly. Objective point of view, O’Sullivan is the strongest offensive player, and Selby is the strongest defensive player, the two collision, Selby’s tactics and defense is crucial, because he has the ability to make O’Sullivan difficult to play, the style of the ball is also different from the two difficult to distinguish between the two main reasons.
O’Sullivan and Selby have not been in the best of form so far this season, but as top players who are good at controlling the game, they are still the best on the snooker tour. Although O’Sullivan’s record is significantly better than Selby’s, beating the latter remains extremely challenging. Similarly, Selby will have a difficult time beating O’Sullivan. The duo always enjoy their matches when they meet, and for Selby, challenging the best player of all time is a unique experience and a way to find his place. O’Sullivan, on the other hand, tests his own athleticism and tactics by playing Selby, and loves the rivalry just as much. In today’s snooker, winning and losing is no longer the most important thing, what matters is that through the confrontation with each other, they continue to improve themselves and become more outstanding players.
