Snooker’s young gun Antoni Kowalski has taken a cheeky pop at the sport’s biggest name, Ronnie O’Sullivan.
The Rocket, snooker’s most notorious bad boy and headline-grabber, is always stirring the pot, whether he’s hinting at hanging up his cue or throwing shade at other players. But now it seems O’Sullivan, who burst onto the scene as a whipper-snapper himself by clinching the 1993 UK Championship aged just 17, has been called out by the Polish hotshot.
Fresh from bulldozing his way through the likes of James Cahill and Simon Blackwell at Q School Event Two, Kowalski has bagged a two-year pass to the snooker big leagues. The 20-year-old whiz kid might soon find himself locking horns with the seven-time world champ in the pro circuit. And if that happens, expect fireworks, because there’s already a bit of spice brewing between them, reports the Mirror.
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Chatting with Metro, Kowalski didn’t mince his words about O’Sullivan, saying: “I don’t know how to say it, but he’s pretty arrogant.” He added a backhanded compliment: “No, he’s a good guy, genius on the table for sure, he’s one of the best players of all time. But he’s not one of my favourites, if I put it like that.”
But Kowalski didn’t stop there; he also lobbed a few grenades at the snooker world in general. Turns out, when it comes to kicking back and watching his peers do battle on the baize, he’d rather be anywhere else.
When quizzed about the pressures of top-tier snooker, he said: “It might sound weird but I hate watching snooker. Whenever I’m watching snooker and someone messes something up I have the feeling of ‘give me the cue I’ll show you how to do it’.”
What do you make of Kowalski’s comments? Let us know in the comments section below.
(Image: Antoni Kowalski/Facebook/Wikipedia)
He also spilled: “I’m going to be honest with you, I never feel pressure. It’s just about concentration. I’m a different kind of man. I’ve been ready for the tour for four years now, so to finally qualify is a big relief.”
Kowalski has been causing a stir on the amateur snooker scene over the past year. He snagged the Landywood Q Tour title in November 2023 by beating Rory McLeod 5-3 and bagged second place at the European U-21 Championship.
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He’s now eyeing a move to the UK to cut down on the commute from his native Poznan, Poland, for UK competitions. “I would love to move to the UK, I love this country, I don’t know why, but it seems great,” he said.
“Most of the players are training here so it’s great to get up a few levels. I was in Sheffield maybe five times, training for Q School. I loved being there training in academies with Chinese players and other guys from England, it was great.”