Snooker star Ronnie O’Sullivan has been backed by Stephen Hendry (Image: Getty/The Snooker Club)
Snooker icon has backed to bounce back from his recent dip in form by winning at least one of his two next two events.
The 48-year-old was . He lost to Xiao Guodong in Bolton before his surprise defeat to Barry Hawkins in the first round at the Barbican in York.
But O’Sullivan has been tipped to turn around his losing run as he enters two events in Saudi Arabia and London in December and January, with a potential £600,000 prize away for the tournaments.
And Hendry, 55, has faith that the Londoner will recover from his rare blip by winning at least one of the tournaments.
“At this point in time it’s easy to make predictions, but I think he’ll either win Saudi Arabia or the Masters. He could win both, although that’s a bold prediction,” he said on The Snooker Club podcast.
“He’s got a huge involvement over there with his academy and he’ll be really up for that one. The Masters is his backyard, he’s won eight of those and the crowd love him.
“I think he’ll definitely win one of those events. He could win both of them but I think he’ll win one of them.”
Stephen Hendry thinks Ronnie O’Sullivan will get back to winning trophies in no time (Image: Getty)
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O’Sullivan’s defeats may have raised some concerns over whether the seven-time world champion still has the desire to win tournaments.
But Hendry believes it is inevitable that as O’Sullivan reaches the latter stages of his career, it will become more difficult to turn up and deliver at snooker events and insists he looks as hungry as ever.
“I don’t think it gets any easier to just switch on being able to play under pressure, just switch on and off, as you get older,” Hendry added.
Ronnie O’Sullivan was knocked out of the UK Championship first round (Image: Getty)
“Whether Ronnie plays [at the Scottish Open] in Scotland or not, I don’t know. He’ll definitely play in Saudi because obviously that’s a huge event and then the Masters.
“So these are events I think – if Ronnie doesn’t get up for every tournament these days – these will be events that he’ll be up for.
“I think he came to the UK [Championship] and looked up for it. The frustration he showed at 4-2 when he missed an easy ball shows he wanted to win.
“There’s no problem with his desire in these big events and he’s working hard on his game.”