New snooker professional Antoni Kowalski believes Ronnie O’Sullivan is the greatest ever but questions his respect of the other players on the circuit.
The 20 year-old from Poland graduated to the World Snooker Tour for the first time in his career by coming through Q School in May and June.
Kowalski had already been an emerging threat on the international amateur scene for several years, losing in both the finals of IBSF World Under-21 Championship and the EBSA European Under-21 Championship to Liam Davies.
In 2023, the then teenager demonstrated his capabilities further by winning a tournament on the feeder Q Tour.
But having triumphed at Q School where he beat the likes of James Cahill, Kowalski will now have the opportunity to compete with the very best that the game has to offer for the next couple of campaigns.
One player who many will already be hoping he gets paired with at some point will be O’Sullivan, who Kowalski labeled as “arrogant” in an interview with Metro last month.
And it’s strong personality traits that Kowalski, from Zielona Góra, looks for when determining his favourite snooker players.
“I was lucky enough to meet Shaun [Murphy] and Mark Selby when I was six or seven years old – they were the first pros I met,” Antoni Kowalski said on the Frames Snooker Podcast.
“They came to my home city for an exhibition, and I was not ranking players level wise or snooker wise. I was ranking them as characters and how good of a person they were.”
“Shaun is a great person and other guys like John Higgins – I met him a couple of years later.
“In the other interviews, the interviewer asked me about Ronnie because I also said about Shaun and John.
“He said I didn’t mention about Ronnie and that I’m the first person he knows that didn’t mention Ronnie.
“I don’t like Ronnie for his character, just because sometimes he lacks the respect. That’s it. I don’t have anything against Ronnie, just to be clear.
“He’s the greatest ever to play snooker, of course. But talking about numpties a couple of years back – I would never do that and I don’t see any other player doing that.
“That’s just it. Apart from that, I don’t have anything against him. If it’s possible, I will tell him straight to his face and we can become friends.”
Kowalski has already played his first tournament as a professional, participating in Championship League Snooker behind closed doors in Leicester.
He gave a decent account of himself on his debut, recording three draws from his three round-robin fixtures against Jak Jones, Jordan Brown, and Révész Bulcsú.
But such is his level of self belief, Kowalski was disappointed to not make it out of the first stage in the competition.
“The dream is obviously to be world number one and world champion, but we’ll see how it goes. I’m just going to try to play my best game and time will tell.”
“It’s the same game of snooker, the same tables. It’s just the organisation is more professional.
“I still have to play my snooker and others guys are playing their snooker. It’s the same for me.
“I’m not comparing myself to the other players as a rookie. I’m there to win, and I’m not going to back over just because I’m playing Jak Jones, the World Championship runner-up.
“If I’m there to play Ronnie or anyone, I’m there to win. I’m there to win all the matches. I’m there to win all the tournaments.
“Honestly, I don’t know why I should feel stress or the pressure on our level, because you’re playing the game. You know how to play.
“You’re playing the game you love to play, so why should you be stressed? Always there’s someone watching, the table is always square with round balls.
“The cloth is sometimes different, but everything is the same always, so why should you be stressed? You’re playing the game you love.”
Antoni Kowalski will next be in action later in July when he encounters Judd Trump in the Xi-an Grand Prix qualifiers.
Featured photo credit: WST
