'Like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal' - Jimmy White compares Ronnie O'Sullivan and John Higgins to legends
:focal(178x132:180x130)/origin-imgresizer.eurosport.com/2023/04/03/3673848-74785904-310-310.jpg)
Updated 29/04/2022 at 15:35 GMT
All sports stars would enjoy being compared to Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, so snooker greats Ronnie O'Sullivan and John Higgins will surely be delighted that Jimmy White has drawn-up a snooker-tennis crossover. The Eurosport expert and fellow sporting legend gave the analysis during O'Sullivan and Higgins' pulsating semi-final at the World Championship.
'Two of the greatest ever' - White compares O'Sullivan and Higgins to Federer and Nadal
Jimmy White has no doubt got both snooker and tennis fans purring by comparing Ronnie O'Sullivan and John Higgins to fellow sporting legends Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
O’Sullivan last met Higgins at the Crucible in 2011, with the latter winning their quarter-final 13-11, with the pair's epic battles often referred to as the 'Clasico' of snooker.
Both have a genuine chance of winning yet another World Championship title in Sheffield, and age certainly does not appear to be slowing down either at this stage of their careers.
White believes that neither player has a weakness and offered up incredibly high praise by comparing the snooker duo to Federer and Nadal for their illustrious careers and undisputed greatness.
"It is like Federer and Nadal: two of the greatest ever," White told Eurosport.
"They have played so many matches together. John Higgins and Ronnie O'Sullivan are, without doubt, two of the best players to have ever played.
"It is because they are that good: it is as simple as that. Both of them have not got a weakness. That is my opinion."
Alan McManus, sitting next to White in the Eurosport studio, added: "I think their last 14 matches are seven-a-piece, so that kind of tells it all.
"They have mirrored their careers all the way to this point. It is brilliant. They are a bit like chalk and cheese: different games, different actions, different lives, actually, apart from anything else.
"But one thing they share is that they are both as cool as rock 'n' roll, the pair of them, in snooker terms. They are a pair of great guys but in different ways.
"They both have this internal thing where they are able to play a certain way under pressure, and they will be loving it against each other on the biggest stage because that is what they want."
/origin-imgresizer.eurosport.com/2022/04/28/3363605-68752373-2560-1440.jpg)
'That’s not the truth' - White does not believe O'Sullivan saying he is not interested in title
Fellow semi-finalist Judd Trump summed up the inevitable nature of the dominance of O'Sullivan, Higgins and fellow 'Class of '92' member Mark Williams when he joked about the "World Seniors Championship" line up he found himself in the middle of.
"I've ended up stuck in the middle of a World Seniors Championship," Trump wrote on Twitter.
"Super excited for the semi-finals, though, still battling it out with three legends of the game!"
The seemingly interminable dominance of the trio at the top of the sport continues to be utterly remarkable. Higgins has four World Championship titles to his name, while Williams has three.
Meanwhile, it is the fifth occasion in O’Sullivan’s illustrious career that he has occupied the world No. 1 ranking, and the first time since 2019, as he continues his pursuit of a record-equalling seventh world title.
- - -
Stream the 2022 World Championship and more top snooker action live and on-demand on discovery+
Scan me
Related Topics
Share this article
Advertisement
Advertisement