Neil Robertson has proposed a significant change to the format of the World Snooker Championship, advocating for shorter matches in the later stages of the tournament. The Australian, who began his campaign at the Crucible with a 10-6 victory over Pang Junxu on Thursday evening, believes that the current format, which features best-of-33 semi-finals and a best-of-35 final, is unnecessarily lengthy.
Robertson's Proposed Changes
Speaking to Midnite, Robertson stated: 'The best out of 35 is a very long match. In today's day and age, I think a best out of 25 is enough.' He suggests that from the second round onwards, all matches should be best-of-25, equating to a race to 13 frames over three sessions. 'First to 13, I think it's a great match. It's over three sessions. I think the semi-finals obviously goes for a long time. Me personally, I would probably change it to once you get to the second round, then it's just best out of 25 for the whole way through,' he added.
Limiting Snooker Chases
Robertson also proposed restrictions on players attempting to gain snookers when trailing. He suggested either a time limit or a points threshold to end frames. 'I think when players need snookers sometimes we carry on hoping for that one in a hundred chance that we'll get a free ball and...the opponent will fail, we get a free ball and clear up,' he said. 'I think you have a restriction on either the time limit that they have to get the snookers or a points threshold where if you need two snookers then just the frame is over. I think that would help a lot actually.'
Robertson's Victory Over Pang
Robertson's win over Pang Junxu was hard-fought, with a stodgy first session on Wednesday that saw the Australian take a 5-4 lead. When play resumed on Thursday night, the match became more open, and the world number three powered to victory, including a century in the final frame. Reflecting on the match, Robertson told the BBC: 'I think yesterday was tough. He [Pang] doesn't try to make things happen, he's really good at trapping you defensively and gets in that way. I was trying to open the door, he kept closing the door. It was really good, I battled well, I tried to stay aggressive when I could. To have a lead last night was nice then today the new cloth really helped, yesterday the table was tough, today it played beautiful. My long potting was great, my safety was good.'
Robertson now faces Chris Wakelin in the second round, a best-of-25 match starting on Saturday morning. The proposed changes would streamline the tournament, but any alteration to the historic format would require approval from the World Snooker governing body.
