Relaxed Ronnie 'caging the chimp'

Ronnie O'Sullivan is favourite to win the Betfair World Championship
30 April 2013

Ice-cool Ronnie O'Sullivan insists he can avoid a Crucible meltdown as he closes in on a fifth Betfair World Championship title.

O'Sullivan credits his work with sports psychiatrist Dr Steve Peters as key to his well-being on and off the table, with the 37-year-old former world number one determined to keep his feelings in check. Where once O'Sullivan could lose focus in a flash, he believes working with Peters has prepared him for the long-haul demands of snooker's stiffest test.

He has overcome Marcus Campbell and Ali Carter already in reaching the quarter-finals, and headed into Tuesday's first session of his clash with Stuart Bingham as the tournament's red-hot favourite. O'Sullivan said: "I'm managing my emotions a lot better now."

He added: "In the past there'd have been a moment in my matches against Marcus and Ali when I'd have probably thought, 'I want to be out of here, I want to go home', and I'd have not deliberately lost but subconsciously I would have given up.

"That won't happen again, none of those meltdowns will happen, no matter how frustrated I may be with myself out there. I'm able to put that on hold until the game's finished.

"Dr Steve Peters has been great to me. I've really worked hard with Steve and tried to take on board everything he's shown me and spoken to me about and obviously I'm benefiting from it massively.

"Ever since I first saw him, before the 2011 World Championship, for the whole year leading up to winning the World Championship last year, I worked really hard on trying to get hold of my emotions and my brain.

"And I'm able to not let my feelings out in front of everybody like the press and the crowd, and have people say, 'Oh, he's lost the plot'. Not once have you been able to see me lose the plot. Sometimes inside I feel it's tough and it's challenging, but I'm able to overcome that.

"It doesn't mean I'm going to win every match I play in. I suppose in some ways that's what endeared me to people, that I cracked up out there sometimes. They'd all want to make sure I'm all right, and the next tournament I'd come out and win and it'd be like a rollercoaster of 'which Ronnie's going to turn up'.

"The last two years I've changed a lot. I'm able to not let my chimp out."

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