World Snooker: Sheffield critic Neil Robertson suggests ‘two Crucible venues’ to provide ‘amazing experience’

The Australian, who turned a 6-3 overnight lead into a 10-5 win over Ashley Hugill, has been a long-time critic of the cramped conditions during the two-table set-up at the Sheffield venue.

And he believes a potential answer could lie in identifying a second, similarly sized auditorium in the city which could act as a second, simultaneous stage through the early-round matches.

Robertson, who earlier this week was critical of the Championships being held at the Crucible said: “My idea is to make it kind of like Wimbledon, where you have Centre Court and Court One, so you give everyone who qualifies the one-table experience.

“I think if you had two Crucible venues that are equal, it would be an amazing experience for everyone to end their season – Sheffield is well equipped to deal with that.

“It’s just an idea. Everyone gets to experience that from round one at the Masters, whereas here there’s only four (semi-finalists). Being the World Championship, it should be the biggest event from the start, not the semi-finals.”

Robertson cemented his status as title favourite by shrugging off an early scare against the Crucible debutant, having started with a 127 in the opening frame but fallen 3-1 behind in the early stages of their match on Monday.

Five frames on the bounce, including two more centuries, put him in a commanding position overnight and Robertson looked in no mood to hang around as he extended his streak to eight upon Tuesday morning’s resumption.

But Hugill dug deep to delay the inevitable, surviving a scary safety battle in the next as Robertson got one of the two snookers that would have enabled him to wrap up victory before the mid-session interval.

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A superb 82 clearance helped Hugill further reduce the deficit to 9-5, before Robertson clicked back into gear and booked his place in the second round with his fourth century of the match.

Robertson, who next faces Jack Lisowski or former finalist Matthew Stevens, added: “I thought my performance was pretty good. He was deserving of his 3-1 lead but I played a lot more aggressively and maybe his inexperience caused a few mistakes.

“I made three centuries then a couple of other big breaks to finish off really well at 6-3, and this morning was just a professional job really, and it was good to finish off with my fourth century of the match.”

Robertson has not tasted the one-table set-up at the Crucible since his solitary title win in 2010 and admitted the time for excuses is over as he bids to live up to expectations this season.

“I’m always one of the favourites and that’s not the reason I haven’t progressed so far,” Robertson added. “I’ve been making rubbish excuses. It’s only when I’ve got myself bogged down in matches that I start looking for problems.”