Players won't miss Ronnie - Taylor
Dennis Taylor claims there would be no tears shed among fellow players if Ronnie O'Sullivan carried out his latest threat to quit snooker.
But 1985 world champion Taylor believes that, rather than quitting for good, O'Sullivan should at least keep showing up to the Crucible until he breaks Stephen Hendry's record of seven titles.
"He loves playing the game still, as you can tell by the way he started against Judd," Taylor told Press Association Sport. "There'd be nothing wrong with winning the World Championship every year and playing in nothing else."
He added: "And then when he's overtaken Stephen Hendry I'll say he's the greatest player that's ever picked a cue up, so maybe that's what he's going to do.
"He'd be sorely missed by some but not by the players. They won't mind if Ronnie doesn't want to play. It means more money, more titles for them."
O'Sullivan, 37, is locked in a tight semi-final with Judd Trump at the Betfair World Championship, after they finished the opening session tied at four frames all. With 17 frames the target for a place in the final, they had morning and evening sessions ahead of them, with the match due to reach its climax on Saturday afternoon.
The match began under a cloud, not only with a war of words breaking out between the players but also with O'Sullivan announcing this year would be his "swansong" at snooker's most famous venue, explaining he only returned from a near year-long break because he needed money to pay school fees.
O'Sullivan led 4-1 at one point on Thursday with breaks of 65, 75 and 89, before Trump reeled him in, finishing the session with a break of 72.
Steve Davis, king of the game in the 1980s, was not impressed by O'Sullivan's pre-match comments.
Davis said: "We know full well that Ronnie O'Sullivan's interviews are a bit like the British weather: they're changeable. But there's a dilemma for the snooker fan. They love what comes off the end of his cue; they sometimes hate what comes out of his mouth because it is sometimes disrespectful to snooker."
