Ronnie O’Sullivan has piled the pressure on Northern Irish potter Mark Allen ahead of their second-round Betfred World Championship showdown — by tipping him to one day conquer the Crucible.
The Pistol locks horns with the Rocket, who is gunning level Scottish great Stephen Hendry’s record of seven Crucible crowns, at snooker's Theatre of Dreams on Friday.
And the world No 1 knows he needs to be at his blistering best against the former Masters champion to keep his title tilt on track.
Read more: Mark Allen battling illness ahead of Ronnie O'Sullivan showdown
The Rocket revealed: “I think he’s going to be world champion one day. I think he’s one of those players who has the game and mentality to win this tournament.
“I’d be surprised if he didn’t win the World Championship one day. It will be a really tough match, he beat me here before. I’m not sure I’ve actually beaten him here.”
The Pistol has frustratingly failed to fire on the green-baize game’s grandest stage in recent years.
Just one quarter-final in the last decade and a solitary semi-final, in 2009, is a poor return for a player of Allen’s calibre.
The world No 15 downed the 38-time ranking-event winner in their only previous meeting here en route to his only appearance at the one-table set up 13 years ago.
Allen had headed to the sport’s spiritual Sheffield home devoid of form and confidence, O’Sullivan doesn’t think the 36-year-old is too far away from sparkling at the sport’s Sheffield spectacle.
And O’Sullivan believes some players put too much pressure on themselves to win the biggest prize in the sport.
He said: “You have to go ‘if I have a good Crucible then great’ but the whole season is like the Premier League really.
“You have to take every tournament and hopefully do well and look at them all as being important.
“If you win the Champions League, as this is, then result, but if you don’t then try and win the league.”
Antrim ace Allen dazzled in front of his army of home fans to win this season’s Northern Ireland Open and made a magical 147 in the process.
And O’Sullivan added: “I don’t think he needs to do a lot to catch up with the top boys. He won the Northern Irish this year. He wins tournaments virtually every year.
“He beats the top players on a regular basis, he is a top player.
“If you’re comparing him to Neil Robertson or Judd Trump then none of us are any good.
“You have to take those two out of it because they’ve been so dominant. After them two he’s as good as anyone has been in the last five or six years.
“John Higgins had a spell where he didn’t win much here. You just have to get a result at some point and then you can gain some momentum.
“It’s a hard venue to play at and that’s why I say you can’t put all your eggs in one basket just for this tournament because it can easily go wrong.”
Read more: Mark Allen makes 'no stone' vow ahead of Crucible assault
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