‘My head was gone’ – Ronnie O’Sullivan opens up about famous walk-out during match against Stephen Hendry

Ronnie O’Sullivan has opened up about his well-known walk-out throughout his match in opposition to Stephen Hendry as a part of the Eurosport present Seventh Heaven.

The Rocket, talking to his good good friend and former rival, Alan McManus, mentioned in-depth the transformation he has gone via within the psychological facet of his snooker sport and past. The dialog was a part of the particular two-hour present on discovery+ and Eurosport.

O’Sullivan began working with Steve Peters on the age of 35 in 2011 following a really robust spell in his profession and private life. Since then, the pair have cast a really optimistic partnership – with the 46-year-old capable of replicate on the work they’ve completed collectively to show his mentality round.

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Trying again, O’Sullivan believes that it was “the satan inside me” and defined how Peters helped him to be much less impulsive when he’s having a nasty day, an outlook that has helped him significantly in his snooker profession.

“Pre-Steve Peters, I feel I walked out in a match in opposition to Stephen Hendry,” O’Sullivan recalled within the present.

“My head was gone. I wasn’t enjoying effectively and I did not wish to be there. I shook fingers and walked out.

“A whole lot of it was in-the-moment stuff. It was simply reacting, ‘I am enjoying garbage, do not wish to be right here, cannot win this match’. So it was simply type of making an attempt to disregard that voice, although it’s nonetheless there.

“Though I nonetheless thought I needed to behave on impulse, I type of stopped changing into impulsive. I realised that’s the satan inside me.

“There have been in all probability a handful of matches since I have been working with Steve Peters the place I’ve not thrown the towel in, however not fancied it. Whereas pre-Steve Peters, I’d have had eight or 9 tournaments a yr like that the place I’d have been like ‘I am out of right here’.

“So that may be a big turnaround and I’ve allowed myself to compete extra typically. I’m not a greater participant however I’m a greater thinker.”

Pondering additional again to his maiden World Championship triumph on the Crucible in 2001, O’Sullivan stated on the present that the stress lifted because of the breakthrough was immense for him.

“As soon as I had gained the World Championships, I felt that I didn’t have something to show,” he stated.

“For my very own peace of thoughts and to get that monkey off my very own again, that was in all probability crucial match I had ever gained.

“I feel I modified as an individual and as a participant then. With that out of the way in which, I used to be capable of simply go on the market and play after that.

“I’m rather a lot higher now at simply taking it for what it’s and maintaining it in its proper place: win, lose or draw, it does probably not matter.”

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