We have known for quite some time that Ronnie O’Sullivan is not your typical snooker player. At times he has seemed immune to everything thrown in his path. Yet his admission that he has taken to pilates to help prepare him for the chance to break one of the few snooker records left for him to break emphasised two things.
First that O’Sullivan does not rehearse quite like any other player does. You cannot envisage many of his peers on a pilates mat, after all. And second that at the age of 47, the stresses and strains which come with being the favourite to win at the Crucible for the eighth time – and beating Stephen Hendry’s modern era record of seven which he tied last year – are immaterial in comparison with the one thing even he cannot evade: the trials and tribulations of age.
