Death of a genius

[altariel]

Watching Ronnie O'Sullivan lose 11-13 last night to Peter Ebdon after being 8-2 up was something of a depressing spectacle, particularly when Ronnie's frustration became so much he dragged his nails across his forehead so deep that there was a bright red mark there for the last hour or so of the match.

Ebdon - tenacious, but not a natural talent - had slowed down to a snail's pace (5 minutes to make a break of 12) and it got to Ronnie more and more. At one point he could be seen sitting slumped in his chair with his hand entirely covering his face: "Is there no relief from the sheer pain of existence?" I doubt it, Ronnie, but I'm right there with you.

Comments

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Oh, is O'Sullivan out? That's a shame. The news has been so full of other things that I hadn't got beyond him leading Ebdon.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Ebdon won something like 6 straight frames at one point to take it to 10-12. Poor Ronnie, he was talking about quitting last night.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

He seemed pretty depressed about his game in one of his earlier interviews :(

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Shaving all his hair off was a bad sign.

[michaelschuster.livejournal.com]

Oh, indeed. But that's the BBC's fault, isn't it? According to what I've heard, at least ... :D

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I hadn't heard about that - tell?!

[michaelschuster.livejournal.com]

Well, Rolf Kalb, the excellent German Snooker commentator on Eurosport said that Ronnie saw a photograph taken by the BBC and realised that the haircut wasn't all that great. So he decided to do the logical thing (yeah, right) and cut it all off.

The irony of this is that he admitted to changing his mind again when he saw a recording of the session. By then, however, it was too late. :)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Yikes, poor Ronnie - it definitely wasn't a good move. And, like Samson, it seemed to drain his superpowers.