Ronnie O’Sullivan hailed after ‘greatest bit of sportsmanship ever’ against Stuart Bingham

Ronnie O’Sullivan requested for the black ball to be re-spotted against Stuart Bingham – Getty Images/George Wood

Ronnie O’Sullivan produced what former world champion Neil Robertson described as “the greatest bit of sportsmanship I’ve ever seen in any sport” following a bizarre incident during the Crucible quarter-finals on Wednesday.

The world No 1 had created an excellent chance to extend his lead over Stuart Bingham to 7-5 when referee Desislava Bozhilova re-spotted a black that left him unable to see the potting angle on the next red.

O’Sullivan, however, had noticed that the black was rolling marginally off its spot and evidently thought that the red might be potable if the colour was placed in the correct position.

After several attempts, Bozhilova managed to re-spot the black in such a way that it did not roll and had indeed seemed to leave the possibility of a frame-winning chance. O’Sullivan, however, then opted to refuse the pot before going on to lose the frame and go into the afternoon mid-session interval level at 6-6.

“If he plays safe here this will probably be the greatest bit of sportsmanship I’ve ever seen in any sport – unbelievable,” said Robertson, commentating for BBC. “He could have played that red. I’ve never seen anything like that before.

“That really is absolutely incredible what Ronnie has done there – to refuse a pot with a great chance of going 7-5 up because he didn’t believe that he could get through to the red if the black was perfectly on its spot. It’s through no fault of the referee either – it’s just one of those situations in this sport where not even a millimetre can make the biggest of differences.”

Slight indentations do commonly form on a snooker table around the six spots and another former world champion, Ken Doherty, said that O’Sullivan would have felt unsettled had he cleared the table while uncertain whether the black had been perfectly placed.

“It’s a very tricky situation – he was also conscious if he did pot it that it would have been a very controversial situation – he didn’t want that in his own head as well,” said the 1997 champion.

John Parrott, the 1990 champion, likened the incident to Paolo Di Canio’s decision to catch the ball for West Ham United rather than try to score when an Everton opponent had gone down injured.

Judd Trump, the world No 2 and second favourite to win the title, had earlier suffered a shock exit against the Welsh qualifier Jak Jones, who will now play O’Sullivan or Bingham in the semi-final.

Play The Telegraph’s brilliant range of Puzzles – and feel brighter every day. Train your brain and boost your mood with PlusWord, the Mini Crossword, the fearsome Killer Sudoku and even the classic Cryptic Crossword.