Neil Robertson is looking good to regain the world No.1 ranking in snooker for the first time in 11 years as the master Australian cueman powered into the quarter-finals after a "near-perfect" victory at the China Open.
At the age of 44, Melbourne's "Thunder from Down Under" is playing some of his best snooker after a lean spell and should he go on to win the tournament on Sunday with three more wins, he'll have made it back to the summit of the game by topping the world rankings.
Robertson feels he'll take some stopping for the Stg $A477,000 winner's prize after breezing through his second-round match brilliantly 6-2 against Si Jiahui, forging away from the local player with breaks of 89, 102 and 79.
Former world champ Robertson won the event when it was last staged in 2019, and noted: "It was nearly the perfect match for me today.
"I scored heavily when I could, stayed patient and stuck to my game plan. My safety was the key for sure because Si is such a dangerous long potter. I feel fantastic out there, I couldn't hit it much better."
Judd Trump will remain as world No.1 until the end of the Wuhan Open later this month, but if Robertson wins this week, he'll be guaranteed to usurp the Englishman.
"The way my life is, having a family and spending as much time with them as possible, I have not always played in every single event," explained Robertson, who hasn't won a ranking title since the Saudi Arabia Masters a year ago.
"But in the last two years I have been very consistent and won some big titles, so it has put me in this position where I could get to number one again. If I'm in the hunt, I might as well go for it!"
He reckoned that watching the great Ronnie O'Sullivan doing three-and-a-half hours on the practice table had made him think: "If he is still putting the hours in at the age of 50, then I should be too."
But it won't get any easier in the quarters as Robertson faces another former world champion, four-time winner Mark Selby, who made a 138 break in the second frame en route to beating Kyren Wilson 6-1.
