'Better than ever' Robertson advances in UK Championship

Former world champion Neil Robertson believes he is playing "better than ever" having continued his fine season by moving into the last 16 of the UK Championship.

The Australian is third in the world rankings and beat Belgium's Julien Leclercq 6-2 in the opening round on Sunday for his first victory in the tournament since he gained the third of his three UK titles in 2020.

A break of 105 put the 43-year-old 3-1 ahead against 22-year-old UK debutant Leclercq, who is ranked 79th and had to win three qualifying matches to get to York.

Leclercq pulled it back to 3-2, but Robertson won the final three frames to comfortably advance.

It continues a remarkable recovery from Robertson, who dropped out of the top 20 in 2024 and did not qualify for that year's World Championship, the first time he had failed to do so in 20 years.

"When I didn't qualify for the World Championship, I thought I had to do something," said Robertson, who has had five spells as the world number one. "I was practising well, just not getting results so I looked up sports psychologists in the Cambridge area.

"From my first meeting it changed my views on what I was doing and made me realise I could be doing things so much better.

"I had always been my own sports psychologist. I had started to think I could be back in Australia more and I could maybe miss a couple of events and was getting homesick - and that allowed me to lose focus."

'What's wrong with your dad?' How taunts helped Robertson back to his best

Robertson began working with sports psychologist Helen Davis and credits her for "completely transforming my life", while former top-10 player Joe Perry has been a vital part of his coaching set-up.

"I have the team around me and I can really trust their voices," added Robertson. "It's about setting up the daily, weekly and monthly structure so when you set a plan and stick to it, you go into all the tournaments prepared.

"I don't think enough snooker players structure a team around them like other sports do, but why not? You see [Novak] Djokovic win a [tennis] Grand Slam and he is thanking several people as part of his team and we tried to do the same.

"I'm definitely playing better than I ever have, this season has gone brilliantly and I'm just enjoyed it."

During his career, Robertson has won 26 ranking titles, including the 2010 World Championship and the UK Championship in 2013, 2015 and 2020, and has also won the non-ranking Masters event twice.

But another motivation for him to return to the top came when his son Alexander was faced with tough questions at school.

"It is good that Alexander has experienced that with me," added Robertson. "He has only ever known, from being a toddler, of me winning, winning, winning all the time.

"Then he went through that spell where he is at school and his friends or teachers are saying 'what's wrong with your dad' and this sort of stuff.

"That really hurts. They were not being nasty but he was upset with it so that was part of my motivation to get back."