Stephen Hendry, the seven-time world champion, believes no-one has been good enough challenge Ronnie O'Sullivan's dominance and the Scot believes this year's Betfair.com World Championship in Sheffield is being handed to the "Rocket" on a plate.
"It's up to the other players to try and get to his level," said Hendry. "As Ronnie said himself, there's been a different winner of every ranking tournament and no-one has taken up the mantle to be the governor.
"Mark Selby always has a good season. He's won more than one tournament, but he and the other players are not playing anywhere near the level that Ronnie is playing here.Mark has done well to win [the Masters and UK Championship], but by his own admission he's not played top snooker to win them.
"You look at [John] Higgins and, although you don't want to say he's a spent force, he's not the player he was. [Mark] Williams is the same. You look at the top players coming in as the favourites [for the title]. Well, there was [Neil] Robertson who flattered to deceive. Ding [Junhui] again has been a failure this year. He was my tip to win, but he also flattered to deceive.
"Selby, he was looking for the triple crown [Masters, UK and World titles in the same season], but he faltered.You have to say the other players are handing it to Ronnie on a plate."
O'Sullivan has hardly broken sweat in winning three matches to reach the semi-finals of the game's showpiece tournament and Hendry, now retired from competitive play, is adamant his fellow professionals have to raise their games if they're going to stop O'Sullivan, the four-time world champion, from again hogging the limelight.
"Any tournament without the best player there is devalued in my eyes whether they [the other players] like it or not," added Hendry. "I'm not saying O'Sullivan's unbeateable, because he's not but on his form against Stuart [Bingham – in the quarter-finals], and generally, if he plays to his ability he wins basically.That's what will happen this week. If he keeps playing and keeps improving round by round, he will win this World Championship.
"When you're a top player your game gets better automatically the longer you're in a tournament and although he wasn't put under any real pressure by Bingham, h is performance [in the opening session] was one of the best I've seen in terms of cue ball control. It was flawless."
Judd Trump fought back from 4-1 down to level at 4-4 with O'Sullivan after the opening session of their best-of-33 frame semi-final yesterday while Ricky Walden opened up a healthy 6-2 lead over fellow Englishman Barry Hawkins .
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