‘Ronnie O’Sullivan told me I’d never make it – I’m out to prove him wrong’
A snooker star is using comments by Ronnie O’Sullivan as motivation ahead of the UK Championship
Daniel Wells is on a mission to prove Ronnie O’Sullivan wrong after being harshly dismissed by the snooker legend. The Rocket didn’t hold back in his critique of Wells during his appearance as an amateur at the 2023 Welsh Open.
Working as a pundit on Eurosport, O’Sullivan suggested that Wells should stick to playing part-time rather than strive to return to the professional ranks. The seven-time world champion said: “I think for him he should just stay as a part-time player, irrelevant of how well he does.
“There’s a lot of players on tour who can’t mentally sustain it. If I was advising him, I’d tell him to stay as a part-time player. He’s tried [being pro] and he ain’t at that level, never will be.
“At best, he’ll maybe make a few semi-finals now and again. He’s never going to be a tournament winner. He’s just not good enough.”
Despite O’Sullivan’s scathing remarks, Wells made it to the last 16 at the very same tournament, even defeating current world number one Judd Trump. Unfazed by O’Sullivan’s comments, he promptly returned to the World Snooker Tour.
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Currently ranked 41st in the world, Wells has achieved some impressive results this season, including reaching the semi-finals of the Xi’an Grand Prix, where he was defeated by eventual champion Mark Williams.
As he gears up for UK Championship qualifying, Wells admits that O’Sullivan’s harsh words continue to fuel his motivation. Speaking to the Talking Snooker podcast, he said: “That’s a perfect motivation for me. People speak to me about how Ronnie said that, and yeah, it wasn’t very nice, to be honest.
“However, I don’t really go along with that notion, because for him to even know who I am is a massive achievement to me anyway. I didn’t really get the whole thing of me staying as an amateur, because people who pick up a snooker cue would love to be known by Ronnie O’Sullivan, let alone compete against him.
“So while it wasn’t very nice, I am thick-skinned enough and I’ve had a lot of people telling me I’m not good enough since my childhood. And do you know what? As a pro in my 20s coming through, I never really had that motivation as such. Obviously, I wanted to win for myself.
“But now I’ve got an extra bit of a point to prove, because somebody else thinks I can’t do it. It’s a perfect scenario for me. If I can’t do it, he’s right and so what?
“But if I can do it, it’s brilliant for me. It really does keep me motivated. I’ve got the quote up on my wall actually in the snooker room. The quote was, ‘you’re never going to be good enough to win a tournament.’ So we’ll see, we’ll see.”
He continued: “If I stayed an amateur, I couldn’t have got to the semi-final or I couldn’t have got to the Crucible. I’ve done okay, I’ve earned a decent living.
“I’ve earned a better living playing snooker than what I did cleaning toilets! I didn’t like it [what O’Sullivan said] at the time, I’ve got to be honest. [From] somebody who I obviously looked up to, but it’s motivation.”
Meanwhile, O’Sullivan was defeated 4-0 by Shaun Murphy in the first round of the Riyadh Season Snooker Championship. It took Murphy just over an hour to knock out the 49-year-old, who will be in action at the upcoming UK Championship, which begins on November 29. Next, Murphy will face current world champion Zhao Xintong in the quarter-finals.
