Disrupting a former world champion snooker player in full flow was never going to end well.
That was the case for one spectator at the 2022 Scottish Open who was given a very public dressing down by Neil Robertson.
The Australian was in his first round clash with Mark Davis when the fan, who was situated in the crowd, moved as he was trying to pot the pink.
Robertson was impacted by the incident which appeared to take place in his line of vision.
His frustration came out by yelling at the fan: “Hey, what are you doing?” The referee also chimed in telling the fan: “Take a seat please and stay there, thank you!”
Commentator Joe Johnson said: “It’s very off-putting when you see somebody just stand up and start walking about. He very nearly missed the pink.”
Fortunately for the fan, he escaped ejection from the arena on the grounds of behaviour causing nuisance or annoyance.
And luckily for the former world champion, he was able to overcome the mishap by cruising to a 4-1 victory.
It got even better for the Australian who beat Joe Perry, Anthony McGill and Mark Selby on his way to a semi-final clash with Joe O’Connor.
Unfortunately, O’Connor proved too strong for Robertson and advanced to the final where he was resoundingly beaten by eventual winner Gary Wilson.
Robertson is the most successful snooker player from outside of the UK.
He is regarded as one of the best break-builder in snooker history and is one of 11 players to have completed the career-triple crows consisting of the World Championship (2010), UK Championship (2013, 2015 & 2020) and Masters (2012 & 2022).
tnt sportsRobertson lined up his shot on the pink[/caption]
The 43-year-old became the first player to achieve over 100 century breaks in a single season and is one of four players to have collected 900 career centuries.
Robertson has won at least one professional tournament during each season from 2006-2022 and at least one ranking event title across 11 consecutive seasons from 2012-2022.
But his big break into snooker was far from straight forward to which he says his British-born opponent will never understand.
“Lots of English players don’t understand how hard it is for an overseas player,” Robertson told the Guardian. “They just don’t get it and don’t try to get it either.
“They’re not interested in these stories,” he added. “Like Ding Junhui coming from China, not being able to speak a word of English, and look at what he’s achieved.
“I always found it really sad that the tour was dominated by British players who would constantly mock overseas players from other countries where snooker wasn’t popular.
“They would see them in the draw and go: ‘Oh, beautiful, I’ve got him in the first round.’ I’m looking at them like: ‘Really? This guy is trying to do his best and he’s not as privileged as you.’
“It annoys me to this day because a lot of English players still have that attitude. It’s only been in the last 15 years that myself and some of the others have made snooker more international.”
Robertson concedes that not all British players display that attitude and used his close ties with Ronnie O’Sullivan as a case in point.
O’Sullivan was the first player Robertson contacted when his wife Mille, suffered from acute anxiety and depression.
“Ronnie had been through depression and so he was really amazing, as he put us in touch with these really nice people who deal with these issues,” Robertson revealed.
“That was the start of us getting out of that dark place.”
