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‘Better than ever’ – Robertson continues great seasonpublished at 19:14 GMT
Robertson 6-2 Leclercq
Michael Emons
BBC Sport at York Barbican
Image source, PA Media
Former world champion and world number one Neil Robertson believes he is playing “better than ever” having continued his fine season by moving into the last 16 of the UK Championship.
The Australian is third in the world rankings and beat Belgium’s Julien Leclercq 6-2 in the opening round on Sunday for his first victory in the tournament since he gained the third of his three UK titles in 2020.
A break of 105 put the 43-year-old 3-1 ahead against 22-year-old UK debutant Leclercq, who is ranked 79th and had to win three qualifying matches to get to York.
Leclercq pulled it back to 3-2, but Robertson won the final three frames to comfortably advance.
It continues a remarkable recovery from Robertson, who dropped out of the top 20 in 2024 and did not qualify for that year’s World Championship, the first time he had failed to do so in 20 years.
“When I didn’t qualify for the World Championship, I thought I had to do something,” said Robertson. “I was practising well, just not getting results so I looked up sports psychologists in the Cambridge area.
“From my first meeting it changed my views on what I was doing and made me realise I could be doing things so much better.
“I had always been my own sports psychologist. I had started to think I could be back in Australia more and I could maybe miss a couple of events and was getting homesick – and that allowed me to lose focus.”
