Robertson Hopes to Break the Curse of the Crucible

Neil Robertson will enter this weekend’s BetFred.com World Snooker Championships determined to break the “Curse of the Crucible” and become the first man to retain the world title one year after winning it for the first time.

Despite the many multiple champions over the years no player, not even the likes of Steve Davis, Stephen Hendry or Ronnie O’Sullivan, has ever managed to win the title in successive years after their inaugural win, but Robertson will arrive in Sheffield ranked number one in the world and confident that he can put a smile on the face of Australian sport.

“It’s certainly been tough being an Aussie recently,” the 29-year-old confided. “Especially a sports-mad Aussie like me living in Cambridge. I stayed up each night and watched every ball of the Ashes, and not much else has gone right for Australian sport either. Ian Thorpe’s making a comeback in the pool but I reckon it’s going to be very tough for him.

“Maybe that’s why my first world title last year became such big news back at home. I paraded the trophy in front of 83,000 Aussie Rules Footy fans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and for days and Mark Webber, the Formula One driver, and I enjoyed all the column inches.

“I am very aware of the Crucible Curse but I’ve retained other big titles in the recent past, I’ve won six out of six world ranking tournaments and I’m the number one in the world so there’s no real reason why I cannot be champion again.”

The 29-year-old from Melbourne has become snooker’s latest dominant figure despite growing up hero-worshipping the likes of fellow Victorian Shane Warne and AFL star Nathan Buckley.

“My Dad was a partner in a snooker hall so I got to play the game quite a lot, fell in love with it and discovered I was pretty good, bunked off school a few times like all good snooker players and here I am,” he explains. “I was into my cricket and AFL, like pretty much every other Melbourne kid, but I also watched the likes of Davis, Hendry, O’Sullivan and fellow left-hander Jimmy White.

“Like every other sports champion it’s not been overnight but a bit of a journey but now I’m at the top I intend to stay there. I understand the hardest thing in sport is not getting to the top but the retention of your main achievements.

“As England are winning the Ashes down under it would make it a world of opposites if I can win the world snooker title again in England.”

His first round opponent, Judd Trump, will provide the stiffest of early hurdles. The 21-year-old from Bristol won his first ranking tournament only last week when he took the China Open title.