Shaun Murphy explains origin of Ronnie O'Sullivan beef and calls on snooker legend to be more like Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer

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Shaun Murphy has explained the origin of his beef with Ronnie O'Sullivan and called on the snooker legend to be more like tennis greats Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. The pair have gone back-and-forth for several years. The 2005 world champion last played O'Sullivan in the semi-finals of the 2024 Masters. Murphy was knocked out of the English Open in the third round earlier this month.

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Shaun Murphy and Ronnie O'Sullivan will go down as two of the great snooker players of their generation, but the duo have never seen eye to eye.

The pair have launched stinging attacks on each other for several years, and now Murphy has revealed the origin of their long-standing beef.

Murphy alleged that their bitter feud first started after O'Sullivan verbally abused him when he was just 12 years old.

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"We fell out when I was young," Murphy told David Hendon for the book Pots of Gold: A History of Snooker.

"Ronnie verbally abused me when I was 12 and I never forgave him. I vividly remember it.

"I still have immense respect for his levels of play as a snooker player. I watch in awe at the things he’s able to do, because I know how hard it is.

"His ability as a player is completely unmatched."

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Murphy and O'Sullivan have only gone head-to-head once in the last five years.

The pair played each other in the semi-finals of the 2024 Masters, with O'Sullivan coming out on top with a 6-2 victory.

Murphy believes that O'Sullivan could have done more to be an ambassador for snooker.

He says that the 49-year-old could have learned from tennis stars Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.

"One of the reasons I idolised Steve Davis so much was I was brought up in a world where being the greatest meant a lot more than how good you were at playing snooker, and unfortunately, for all of the good things Ronnie has done in terms of his snooker ability, I think he’s done an equal amount of, if not more, damage to the sport from an ambassadorial point of view," he said.

"I think it’s such a shame that he hasn’t done for snooker in his ambassadorial position the things that people he says he looks up to – like Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic – have done, that he hasn’t taken a leaf out of their book and treated the sport that’s given him so much the same level of respect.

"If he had used his platform for good, he could have single-handedly dragged snooker into a different stratosphere in terms of popularity. He could have made us much more mainstream."

O'Sullivan has withdrawn from several tournaments over the last three years for an array of different reasons.

Murphy believes that his rival is treated differently to other players due to his status in the game.

"He’s the biggest needle-mover in the sport, the biggest we’ve ever seen," he added.

"That brings you some forgiveness. When the golden goose lays the golden egg, you get treated differently.

"There’s no question over the years that various chairmen have treated him more leniently over his offences because of the attention he brings to snooker, and commercially that’s probably correct."

Murphy is in third-round action against Neil Robertson at the British Open while O'Sullivan withdrew from the tournament for medical reasons.

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