Zak Surety hopes reaching a first major semi-final is a sign he is coming to terms with the crippling anxiety which has affected his snooker career.
The 33-year-old from Essex made it to the last four of the World Open in Wuhan, China, at the end of February before losing 6-5 to eventual winner John Higgins, having led 5-3 and missed a couple of reds in the deciding frame.
Surety has had a stop-start involvement on the World Snooker Tour since turning professional in 2014 but is now ranked 73 in the world and hoping to qualify for this year’s World Championship at The Crucible for the first time.
“The whole adventure over there was very surreal, a bit mad,” the left-hander told BBC Essex’s Framed podcast.
“Although it was the most positive, brilliant week I’ve ever had on a snooker table, I’m now full of negativity from it really because of what could have been.
“When it was 4-3, 5-3 and the chances were appearing, I slowly started to believe I could actually win, and then it started to go wrong.
“When John was in the balls at 5-3 and ended up clearing up and it’s 5-4, I thought ‘I might never get this opportunity again’ – and it’s the wrong way of thinking because it was a breakthrough (for me), but you can’t help thinking that at the time.”
Surety said that although he is generally happier now in terms of mindset, there were events earlier in the season when he had a “bit of a wobble” and should not have played.
“I’m still doing the right things, practising every day, I’m happy off the table, still doing a lot of running, but when I’m in there (at a tournament), it’s still fighting that voice in your head,” he said.
“As well as I was doing (in China) it was still a constant battle most days… each day, although the matches were going well, I still found myself up and down where I was dominating the matches but still found myself 2-2 at the interval and thinking ‘ooh, I could be going home here’.”
Source link : https://www.bbc.com/sport/snooker/articles/c871907g2ggo
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Publish date : 2025-03-26 12:10:22
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