Ronnie O’Sullivan has claimed fellow snooker John Astley needs to “find something else to do” after judging the Englishman’s Welsh Open defeat.
Mark Williams beat Astley 4-2 in Llandudno. He squandered a chance to take the lead in the fifth set with the match at right angles when he tried to roll red down the lower pad.
Three-time world champion Williams secured victory and progress to the main event of the competition.
O’Sullivan, who claimed his eighth Masters and British title this season, works as a Eurosport pundit after withdrawing from the tournament due to anxiety, and did not hold back his criticism of Astley’s success.
“If I have a chance I think I should have won the game,” O’Sullivan said of the 35-year-old’s ban. “When I’m out of position, I take it because I just can’t accept not winning the frame, so sometimes it’s hard to reject balls. I would probably try to screw it in, give it a bit of pressure, and at least if you forget, the red will go away.
“But to play like that, he’s not even in the plus…with a bad shot. He really doesn’t have a snooker brain, that’s what. You have to have a snooker brain.
“Some people are good at maths, some people are good at English, some people just have a snooker brain, and some people just don’t play the right shot and never will play the right shot because their brains don’t think like snooker.
“There are five best players, I won’t name any names that I think don’t hate snooker, but they have such good technique that they can succeed. He has neither. He doesn’t have good technique and he doesn’t even have a snooker brain.
“He only does 30-40, misses balls and never does anything. It’s unfortunate, but you have to have one of the two. You need to have good technique or a snooker brain, and if you don’t have both, maybe it’s time to find something else to do.
Gateshead-born Astley is currently ranked 78th in the world and reached the third round at last year’s English Open.
Williams will next face Sanderson Lam in the last 64 in Wales as he looks to win his first domestic tournament in 25 years..
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