Neil Robertson reveals why he fancies chances of improving odd Crucible record

Neil Robertson feels fresh and ready to attack at the World Snooker Championship, without as many ‘miles on the clock’ as last season.

The 44-year-old arrives at the Crucible as the world number three and with a big title to his name this season thanks to winning the Saudi Arabia Masters.

There have been some early exits since then, notably back-to-back first round defeats at the World Grand Prix and Players Championship, but also three more semi-final runs and a quarter-final of the Masters.

The Australian feels he has been close to more success and is happy with his consistency of performance over the campaign.

‘There were a couple of missed opportunities there where literally an extra roll of the cue ball, I think then I would have taken some stopping in the Masters,’ said Robertson.

‘The ball rolls on another millimetre and I beat Kyren [Wilson] 6-4 and then I think I would have taken some stopping in winning another Masters there.

And there’s been a couple of other close calls as well.

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‘But, yeah, consistency has been really good this season.

A lot of quarter-finals and semi-finals, a couple of close calls to adding another couple of tournaments.’
The Thunder from Down Under has opted out of a few events this season for various reasons, some out of his control, but says he is feeling the benefit at the business end of the campaign.

‘I feel really fresh as well,’ he said.

‘I’ve missed a few events through choice and I’ve missed a couple through illness or whatever.

‘So I feel as though I haven’t got as many miles in the tank as maybe what I had last year where I played in every event because I was trying to rescue my ranking position.’
Robertson’s Crucible record is a curious one, having been one of the world’s best players for the best part of 20 years and winning 26 ranking titles, but rarely showing his brilliance on the sport’s grandest stage.

Since his 2010 World Championship triumph he has been to just one Crucible semi-final and has not been to a quarter-final since 2021.

Just two years ago he didn’t even make the Crucible as he slipped out of the top 16 and fell short in the final qualifying round.

Assessing what has gone wrong in Sheffield, he told The Independent: ‘My weakness here has probably been that I can get drawn into a middle session that doesn’t really seem to be going anywhere, and before I know it the session is taken away from me.

‘This year the emphasis is going to be very attacking.

I’ve got a certain plan about how I’m actually going to be doing that, which is hopefully going to impact a lot of the frames in my favour.

‘I think this is the most confident I’ve been probably ever coming into the World Championship, because I feel as though as a collective we’re in this together, and this is the set plan, and I’m not going to deviate from it.’
Robertson will try and put that plan into action when he takes on Pang Junxu in his first match at the Crucible this year, which gets underway on Wednesday evening.