Neil Robertson working on ‘scary snooker that you can’t stop’ despite Masters loss
Neil Robertson feels his game is in brilliant shape and is close to playing ‘scary snooker that you can’t stop’ despite a Masters defeat at the hands of Shaun Murphy.
The Australian did play well in a 6-2 defeat to the Magician, who was in fantastic form, winning the match with a break of 120, snookering himself on the yellow in a bid for a 147.
Robertson made breaks of 108, 79 and even a 66 in the fifth frame which he lost and only saw positives in his performance.
‘I really did very, very little wrong,’ he said. ‘People will play a lot worse than that and probably win their respective quarter-finals.
‘You just have to say well played to Shaun, but I feel great about my game. It’s a shame because I definitely felt I could go all the way and win it with how I’ve been playing.
‘I’m just pleased my game’s back. The aggressiveness, the tempo, the rhythm.’
Robertson has been playing slower than you would expect him to at times this season, but is working with a sports psychologist on speeding up to play at the same pace he does in practice.
He feels that he is close to that now, working on lowering his heart rate by playing at the most comfortable pace rather than actually slowing down at the table.
He hopes this will produce the ‘scary snooker that you can’t stop’ that he plays in the practice room.
‘The biggest thing I’ve been working on the last couple of weeks from a mindset point of view is how do I replicate how I play in practice,’ Robertson explained.
‘The speed and the rhythm I play in practice out there, because I’ve never really done it before in my career. There’s been moments, but I’ve learned now how to do that, working with my sports psychologist, how to actually do it and not where I’m forcing it. That’s the most important thing.
‘If I can replicate my practice form it’s scary snooker that you can’t stop.
‘So I need to focus on that more, rather than slowing down the heartrate by playing calmer snooker. I’ve learned to do that by playing at the tempo I do in practice, which is great, I’ve never had that before in my career.’
The 42-year-old sees a successful second half of the season, seeing the form he showed against Murphy as good enough to win events.
‘I need to keep doing what I’m doing, don’t really worry about the rankings, just focus on more performances like that because that’s like tournament-winning snooker,’ he said.
‘If I can get on a run playing like that then there can be many tournaments I can contend for this season.’
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