Neil Robertson says he is now ‘immune’ to what he calls ‘clueless opinions’ after being criticised over his world number one credentials, and has revealed he has switched back to a brass ferrule on his cue.
The Australian, who first turned professional in 1998 and turns 45 next birthday, has won 26 ranking titles, a tally only six players in snooker history have surpassed. Despite that success, his name has recently been raised as undeserving of being in the battle for the top spot.
Trump’s comments and Robertson’s response
Judd Trump claimed Robertson’s Saudi Arabia Masters win last season – and the £500,000 prize that came with it – was doing too much heavy lifting for his ranking. Speaking to Metro last month, Trump said: ‘I think Neil, for example, I don’t really know what he’s done to be so close, apart from win Saudi, he hasn’t really done anything else. It’s hard to pick individual players out, nothing against Neil but he’s not been consistent enough to be the number one, in my eyes.’
Robertson, currently fourth in the world rankings, responded by pointing to his recent results, including winning the World Grand Prix last year and the English Open in 2024, plus semi-finals at the UK Championship and Tour Championship. He told Metro he spoke to Trump about the comments: ‘I spoke to Judd and said, “What are you doing?” He was just like, “Oh God, that just came out all wrong.” Before winning Saudi I was still ranked eight. It’s not like I just won Saudi. You only have to look at the actual points, take Saudi off and I’m still really high up anyway. When I won Saudi, that was my third ranking event win in the space of 10-11 months and since Saudi, it’s been littered with quarters and semi-finals.’
Ignoring online chatter
Robertson says he has lost interest in online debates about him, his game, or sport generally. ‘I don’t really take too much notice,’ he said. ‘I used to a few years ago, but I see certain topics being discussed…I don’t know, say Hendry or Ronnie or Messi or Ronaldo, the Jordan-Lebron debate or Tom Brady and all that. You see some of the comments and people have got no idea. It’s actually a big relief to see that because it’s other sports where this exists too, where you just get completely clueless opinions from people that have absolutely no idea. I’m completely immune to it all now. People are going to have their opinions. That’s just sort of how it goes, you know?’
He also said he is often misjudged in person, citing encounters at the driving range where strangers express surprise that he is ‘really nice’ after expecting him to be arrogant based on his TV persona. ‘People are judging a personality based on when you’re in a really competitive environment. We’re just normal people. I think you get judged too much on how you are in the arena,’ he added.
Switch back to brass ferrule
Robertson has experimented with a titanium ferrule over the last 18 months, winning two big tournaments with it, but has now switched back to brass after frustration with his range of shots. He credited Mark Selby for advice on the change. ‘Selby left me a really long voice note, actually. He thought I didn’t look half the player with titanium that I did with brass. He said: “You’re good enough to win Saudi or any tournament with anything, but that shouldn’t really be your deciding factor.” I leaned on Saudi a little bit too much, because I was having issues in the second half of last season, things just weren’t quite right. I was speaking to Mark about going back [to brass] and he was like, “Mate, that’s an absolute no-brainer.” I think he tried it for a tournament and thought there’s no way. Whereas I was probably a little bit more stubborn because I’d won Hong Kong and the Saudi. It’s like a football club having an interim manager, they go on a winning run and it’s hard to sack them. That’s how I felt after Saudi, but I had my doubts going into this season.’
Robertson used brass at the recent Shenzhen Open, winning matches against Liu Hongyu and Lei Peifan before losing to Chris Wakelin. ‘I’m really happy with it. It’s like riding a bike again or putting on an old pair of slippers,’ he said. ‘There were a couple of things against Chris on a couple of shots, errors I probably wouldn’t make again next week, That’s just the readjustment process. But I thought Chris played ever so well. The signs are looking good. I’m excited for the season to start now. It’s disappointing I felt as though I didn’t really have much of a chance in the first four or five events with the ferrule I was using. But I’m excited for the rest of the season ahead now, for sure.’
