Neil Robertson names his top three snooker players of all-time

Neil Robertson is taking on John Higgins in the World Snooker Championship quarter-finals, a player he considers the second greatest of all-time.

The two former world champions meet at the Crucible for a place in the final four, playing over three sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Robertson has taken an early lead, moving 5-3 ahead after the first session, which was a long scrap, eventually delaying the start of the evening session.

It is a narrow lead for the Australian and he will not be getting carried away just yet in their race to 13, especially given how highly he rates the Scot.

Higgins is a four-time world champion and is still among the game’s very best as he approaches his 51st birthday, such has been his immense longevity since he turned professional in 1992.

Asked where he places the Wizard of Wishaw on his personal all-time ranking list, the Thunder from Down Under thinks he is only behind one man.

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‘Top three straight away, I think anyone would, 100 per cent,’ Robertson said on where he would rank Higgins in the history of snooker players.

‘I think you’d probably have Ronnie [O’Sullivan], John and third greatest would be probably [Mark] Selby. Yeah, I’d have those three, with John at two.’

Stephen Hendry would still be on many lists of the greatest three players of all-time, but Robertson’s opinion is one shared by six-time world champion Steve Davis.

Speaking of four-time world champ Selby, Davis said: ‘He’s probably the most underrated player in the game by the general public who don’t watch enough snooker to realise how talented he is.

‘I think he’s top three standard ever. Ronnie O’Sullivan, John Higgins and Mark Selby. The actual standard. Mark Williams is in there as well. But an astonishing standard he [Selby] can produce, relentless stuff and once he’s in the zone, what a player.’

After beating Chris Wakelin in the second round on Monday, Robertson looked ahead to the clash with Higgins, feeling that he has had the better of their encounters of late.

The Aussie does hold a winning record against the Scot, but the most recent match, which came at the Players Championship in Telford in February was won 6-1 by Higgins.

‘I’ve had the better of it recently,’ said Robertson on the BBC. ‘But it’s not going to affect John. It wouldn’t affect me if I had a bad record against someone either.

‘It’s going to be about who can really get a stranglehold on the match and play it on their terms.’

The quarter-finals conclude on Wednesday, with Robertson and Higgins playing two sessions, in the morning and evening.

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