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Australia's Neil Robertson has begun snooker's World Championships well and hopes his mother's arrival from Melbourne will inspire a repeat of his 2010 success.
With his 'lucky' mum in attendance Neil Robertson has made a promising start in the World Championships as he seeks to end a poor recent record in Sheffield and repeat his title success of 12 years ago.
The Australian is favourite having won four titles already this season, but in his own words his form at the sport's premier event since 2010 has been: "terrible, awful, shocking".
The 40-year-old has only even reached the semi-final once in that period.
On Monday he had begun tentatively against Crucible debutant Ashley Hugill, losing three of the first four frames, but then won five in a row to take a 6-3 overnight lead. On Tuesday he extended that streak to eight before wrapping up a 10-5 victory
Watching on was mother Alison, who flew over from Melbourne last month having not seen her son for three years due mainly to Australia's strict Covid-19 regulations.
"Hopefully she is my lucky charm," said Robertson. "She has a 100% strike record whenever she has come over, seeing me win this tournament, my first UK Championship in 2013 and Tour Championship this year too.
He added: "I was a little bit nervy at the start but settled down quickly. This morning was just a professional job really.
"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."
Robertson, who made four century-plus breaks, faces Jack Lisowski or Matthew Stevens in the next round.
The Australian then surprised his hosts by advocating the World Championships find a second venue in the Yorkshire city so every match was a one-table event - at present two tables share the arena until the semi-final stage.
Robertson, long a critic of the cramped conditions, 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.
"It's just an idea. Everyone gets to experience that from round one at the Masters, whereas here there's only four. Being the World Championship, it should be the biggest event from the start, not the semi-finals."
With PA
