On fire after a strong lead-up to the tournament, Neil Robertson aka 'The Melbourne Machine' has told FlowNews24 he'd also like to shake up the dress code.
World No.3 Neil Robertson has been hailed as champion-elect, advancing to round two of the world snooker championship with the Australian dominating his opening match against Liang Wenbo.
Robertson hammered six-time world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan in last month's Tour Championship final with a performance that the Englishman said it was the best he'd ever seen. Robertson told FlowNews24:
“Ronnie (O’Sullivan) was really complimentary; he said that he had the best seat in the house, to just enjoy watching what I was doing."
The in-form 39-year-old Australian converted a 6-3 overnight advantage on Saturday into a routine 10-3 win in Sunday's action.
Robertson vowed to take nothing for granted after brushing Wembo aside at The Crucible.
Neil Robertson spoke with the Arvo Flow's Clayton Bester before the tournament in this Flowsports 'Sporting Fix' podcast episode. You can read the rest of the article further below:
Either Jack Lisowski or Ali Carter await Robertson in the last 16. At the time of writing, Lisowski led Carter 5-4 after trailing 1-3.
Robertson said coping with the pressure of expectation was key.
"At some point you have to cope with becoming the favourite in an event, I've always been able to deal with it and it is the really big guns who cope with it the best."
"Over the last seven or eight years, in five of those years I've blitzed my opponents and everyone is saying 'his name's on the trophy' already.
In a recent interview on the Arvo Flow with Clayton Bester, Robertson said he supports a change in dress code from the formal attire required currently:
“We don’t need to wear a bowtie and waistcoat for every event.
“We could certainly look at changing the dress code to be a bit more current than what it is.
“It’s not the most comfortable thing to be playing for hours on end.
Robertson has been stuck in the United Kingdom for many months. He spoke about the publicity around his changing hairstyles and the mental challenge of tournament snooker:
“In the UK the hairdresser has been closed for something like five months, yeah I haven’t had a haircut in that time.
“It’s just about maintaining the level...keep things ticking over.
“Snooker is one of those sports where so much is mental (pressure).