Neil Robertson would like change to World Snooker Championship format: "goes for a long time"

Australian Robertson - the most successful non-British snooker player of all-time - is currently contesting the 2026 World Snooker Championship in Sheffield.

Aiming to reclaim the crown he won in 2010, the 44-year-old defeated Chinese qualifier Pang Junxu in round one to set up a last 16 tie with number 13 seed Chris Wakelin, the player who eliminated him from this competition last year.

For a player of such class and so many top tier accolades, Robertson’s Crucible record is a bit of a mystery. Since his finest green baize moment 16 years ago, he has yet to appear in another final, and has only played in the one-table set-up once when he lost to eventual champion Mark Selby in the 2014 semi-finals.

Robertson last featured in the quarter-finals five years ago; two years ago he wasn’t even in the main draw at all having fallen outside of the world’s top 16 and failed to qualify for the first time since 2004.

But over the past couple of seasons, ‘The Thunder from Down Under’ has turned around his career, ending a two-and-a-half year wait for a ranking title at the 2024 English Open, and later in the same term claiming the World Grand Prix crown in Hong Kong.

Earlier this campaign, back in August, Robertson scooped the £500,000 top prize - the biggest payday of his career - when he ousted Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-9 in an enthralling Saudi Arabia Masters final in Jeddah.

At the time of writing, Robertson can finish this season as the world number one if he wins the world title and Judd Trump loses in the last 16 to Hossein Vafaei.

Robertson on Crucible format: “I would probably change it”

The World Snooker Championship is the sport’s ultimate prize and ultimate test, with the main venue, televised stages at the Crucible lasting 17 days. The late, great snooker journalist and commentator Clive Everton described the gauntlet as a ‘marathon of the mind’.

Since 1982, the main draw format of the blue riband event has remained almost identical, with the only change coming in 1997 when the semi-finals were upped from best of 31 to 33.

But 26-time ranking event winner Robertson feels that the semi-finals and finals are too long, and that from the second round onwards it should be the best of 25 frames (like it is in the last 16 and eight of the tournament).

Speaking to World Snooker Championship sponsors Midnite, the world number three said: “I mean the best out of 35 is a very long match. In today's day and age, I think a best out of 25 is enough. First to 13, I think it's a great match. It's over three sessions.

“I think the semi-finals obviously goes for a long time. Me personally, I would probably change it to once you get to the second round, then it's just best out of 25 for the whole way through.”

Robertson suggests rule change for snookers

It’s not just the world championship format that Robertson would change, though - he would like to see a specific amendment to the rules themselves when it comes to playing on for snookers.

Robertson suggested: “I think when players need snookers sometimes we carry on hoping for that one in a hundred chance that we'll get a free ball and...the opponent will fail, we get a free ball and clear up.

“I think you have a restriction on either the time limit that they have to get the snookers or a points threshold where if you need two snookers then just the frame is over. I think that would help a lot actually.”

To view the full draw, results, schedule, and other information from the 2026 World Snooker Championship, visit our tournament information centre here.

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