Neil Robertson has criticised what he calls 'clueless opinions' after fellow snooker star Judd Trump questioned his high ranking. Robertson currently sits fourth in the World Snooker Tour standings, a position Trump suggested was heavily influenced by his Saudi Arabia Masters victory.
The win in the Middle East was worth £500,000, leading to claims it was doing much of the work in lifting Robertson's ranking. However, the 2010 world champion has dismissed that suggestion.
Robertson responds to Trump's comments
Speaking to the Metro, Robertson said he confronted Trump about the remarks: "I spoke to Judd and said, 'What are you doing?' He was just like, 'Oh God, that just came out all wrong.'"
Robertson pointed to his record before and after the Saudi triumph: "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."
Trump's original comments
The row stems from Trump saying: "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 also addressed online speculation about his performances, saying he is now immune to it: "I don't really take too much notice. 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?"
Judgement outside the arena
Robertson added that players are often misjudged based on their on-table persona: "It happens a lot around golf. I'll be at the driving range and I could be talking to a complete stranger for 10 minutes and they're like, 'Wow, you're actually really nice person. Whenever I've seen you on TV, I thought you were arrogant!' 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. If you were to judge every heavyweight boxer on how they are in the ring, you probably wouldn't like too many of them."
