Daniel Wells is determined to prove a point to Ronnie O’Sullivan after being brutally written off by the snooker icon. The Rocket delivered a withering assessment of Wells during his appearance as an amateur at the 2023 Welsh Open.
Speaking on Eurosport, O’Sullivan advised the Welshman to stay part-time, saying he would never make it as a professional. 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.”
At the tournament in question, Wells actually made the last 16 after beating current world number one Judd Trump. And despite O’Sullivan’s stinging comments, he returned to the World Snooker Tour.
Currently ranked 41st in the world, Well has picked up some eye-catching results this season, including reaching the last four of the Xi’an Grand Prix, where he lost to eventual champion Mark Williams.
As he prepares for UK Championship qualifying, Wells says he remains motivated by O’Sullivan’s cruel critique. He told the Talking Snooker podcast: “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 added: “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 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 whitewashed 4-0 by Shaun Murphy to fall at the first hurdle in the Riyadh Season Snooker Championship. Murphy took little more than an hour to knock out the 49-year-old. Murphy will face reigning world champion Zhao Xintong in the quarter-finals.