If you can make it in New York, the theory goes that you can make it anywhere, so the path from Broadway to Sheffield's Crucible Theatre should hold no fear for Ahmed Aly Elsayed.
Aly is a new face to many on snooker’s expanding veterans' circuit, as the sport builds on the prosperity of its golden age by rolling out stars of yesteryear on its most famous stage.
As well as undisputed legends Jimmy White, Stephen Hendry and Ken Doherty, regional title winners from all corners of the globe are rocking up in Sheffield for the World Seniors Championship, an annual jamboree that begins on Wednesday. Aly will become the first American to compete at the Crucible.
Life will replicate art when Egypt-born Brooklynite Aly competes, after he acted out two snooker player parts in the 2018 Broadway production The Nap, one of which was that of a finalist at the World Championship.
Aly's day job is that of billiard room manager at the New York Athletic Club, a renowned 24-story pile at 180 Central Park South.
"He's a very good player," Cliff Thorburn, the 1980 world champion, tells Stats Perform. "One of his functions at the New York Athletic Club is looking after the billiard room. They've got possibly the nicest snooker room in the world. It overlooks Central Park and I would highly recommend having a Sunday brunch there in the fall, as the leaves are changing.
"The park's right there and you look down on it. With your breakfast you get a Bloody Mary for starters, and it's just a fabulous place."
Thorburn, a Canadian with a 'Magnum PI' moustache, remembers Aly looking "rough around the edges" when he first set eyes on his cue action.
"But when I saw him in Toronto he had gained a polish to his game," said Thorburn. "He wears a suit very well, like Ronnie O'Sullivan or Judd Trump.
"Ahmed polished his game, and he's taken it to a new level, but you're only as good as the players around you unless you've got that special thing about you. He does, he's very sharp, and I expect something good from him, but this is the deep end. That's pressure, isn’t it!”
Performing shots to order on a table in front of Broadway audiences is one thing, but facing gritty rivals at the theatre venue in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, that has hosted the main tour's World Championship since 1977, will be a whole new test of Aly's stage presence.
"He had to play certain shots on Broadway, and of course the stage is live," said Thorburn. "He looks like a prince, he's got that air about him: well groomed, a good guy, a gentleman, competitive, and he loves his snooker. I hope he gives himself a fair shot at it."
Aly, the 2021 Pan American senior champion, who picked up that title at the Corner Bank venue in Toronto, will play Bradford's Wayne Cooper for the right to tackle 1997 world champion Doherty at the last-16 stage.
Snooker's emergence as a viable senior spectacle has reflected a growth market in sports where it is feasible to remain competitive long after a sportsperson's usual shelf life.
Golf's PGA Champions Tour is sport's ultimate veterans' circuit, with over $62million in prize money due to be paid out this year. Germany's Bernhard Langer has earned over $30million on that tour, mind-boggling considering this is not sport at its highest level.
Snooker is not aiming to compete at that level, but its equivalent tour is soaring in popularity, with the World Seniors Championship being broadcast by the BBC and staged at snooker's most established venue. Crowds will flock, just as they have to the elite World Championship over the past fortnight.
"They're at the Crucible and rightfully so," said Thorburn. "I think it's the right place to have it, and there's a lot of memories that have come from these players that are going to be playing now."
Thorburn's great chum Bob Chaperon is returning to the Crucible stage, some 32 years since he became the last Canadian winner of an individual ranking title, beating Alex Higgins in the 1990 British Open final. Three weeks after that, Chaperon teamed up with Thorburn, who was recovering from a burst appendix, and Alain Robidoux to win snooker's World Cup for Canada.
Naturally, Thorburn is pulling for Chaperon, who faces Welshman Philip Williams first up.
"Bob was supposed to be here two years ago, but COVID stopped him," Thorburn says. "He’s playing Philip, who beat me here once before. So let me think, who do I want to win? Bob, yes Bob. I'm so glad I'm going to be here. Bob's got the chance to cause some damage."
Ronnie O’Sullivan dismisses talk of greatness ahead of World Championship opener
Ronnie O’Sullivan shrugged off suggestions of greatness on the eve of his bid to eclipse Stephen Hendry and become the first player to win eight world snooker titles in the modern era.
O’Sullivan is already routinely described as the best player to pick up a cue after a record-breaking career that includes eight Masters and eight UK titles within a total of 41 ranking tournament wins.
But the 48-year-old, who starts his first round match against Welsh qualifier Jackson Page on Wednesday, has never been one to pore over the record books, and questions whether such plaudits are worth having at all.
“I don’t regard myself as the greatest of all time,” said O’Sullivan. “Statistically I suppose I am, but I’m just happy to be playing.
“I suppose as a kid I would have been desperate to be up with those guys but when you get there it’s a bit of an anti-climax – it’s not as great as you thought it would be.”
O’Sullivan, who won his first world title in 2001, currently sits on seven alongside Hendry, with Davis and Ray Reardon one behind on six wins each.
Yet while the title-winning eras of those fellow greats spanned less than a decade, O’Sullivan’s longevity, which shows all the signs of pushing on beyond a quarter of a century, makes the reign of the ‘Rocket’ indisputably unique.
“I’ve had a different career to them,” added O’Sullivan. “They just did it over a 10-year period while I’ve sort of gone off track for five or six years, then got myself back together, then disappeared for another three years, then got myself back together again.
“I was a bit all over the shop really, stuff going on off the table that can affect how you perform. Hendry and Davis had everything fitted around them to focus on snooker, but that’s how it worked out for me, so I’ve had to go on longer.”
“I love playing, I enjoy it. I get to travel where I want, take time off when I want, be my own boss. It’s those little things, and you want to win because competitiveness has always been in me.
Amid more top-level retirement talk, with Mark Selby the latest to question his future in the sport after his first round defeat to Joe O’Connor, O’Sullivan appears to be heading back to the Crucible intent on many more attempts to increase his legacy.
He has linked up with a new coach and is clearly putting the effort in ahead of his opener against 22-year-old Page, who beat Barry Hawkins on his Crucible debut two years ago before suffering a heavy defeat to Mark Williams in round two.
O’Sullivan added: “I love playing, I enjoy it. I get to travel where I want, take time off when I want, be my own boss. It’s those little things, and you want to win because competitiveness has always been in me.
“I’m pretty cool with what I’ve done and I’d like to keep winning more. Whether that makes me the greatest or not, I don’t know. It really doesn’t matter.”
Jack Lisowski forges ahead against Ding Junhui in tight Crucible clash
Jack Lisowski forged a 5-4 lead in his World Snooker Championship opener against Ding Junhui as the clash lived up to its billing as the tie of the round.
Lisowski, who reached the quarter-finals at the Crucible in 2022, had to qualify for this year’s tournament after dropping out of the top 16, beating Matthew Stevens 10-3 last week to book his ticket.
But after falling behind early on against Ding, Lisowski looked back to his best as he edged a highly entertaining first session.
Lisowski, 32, looked in danger of being blown away by Ding on Tuesday morning as the 2016 finalist flew out of the blocks, compiling a clearance worth 127 to win the opening frame.
The Chinese star then enjoyed a huge slice of luck in the second as he fluked a red into a middle pocket early on, but a missed black at 23-0 opened the door for Lisowski to pot his first ball of the day.
Lisowski was only able to score a solitary point at that visit before letting Ding back in, though, and he finished the frame with a break of 60 to make it 2-0.
The Englishman hit back in the next, rattling off a break of 72 to reduce Ding’s lead to one.
And Lisowski went into the mid-session interval tied at 2-2 courtesy of a break of 91 in the fourth frame.
Ding displayed his brilliant battling qualities in the fifth frame as he conjured a 98 to edge ahead once more.
An attritional sixth frame, which lasted more than half an hour as a tactical battle broke out, went Lisowski’s way as he drew level.
But Ding made quick work of the next frame, winning it with a break of 90 to go 4-3 up before Lisowski took the eighth.
And Lisowski won the final frame of the session to lead for the first time in the match.
Former finalist Kyren Wilson has one foot in the second round after storming into an 8-1 lead against Welshman Dominic Dale, who is making his Crucible comeback after a 10-year absence.
Wilson started brightly, winning the first two frames before Dale seemed set to get his first frame on the board after opening up a 30-0 lead in the third.
But Wilson made Dale pay for missing the pink as he roared back with a break of 75 to take a 3-0 lead.
Dale was not to be denied in the fourth frame, though, producing a stunning break of 120 to get on the scoreboard.
Wilson regained command immediately after the interval with a phenomenal break of 123 before a 98 in the next frame moved him 5-1 in front.
Englishman Wilson then showed exceptional nerve to come from behind to win the next frame 74-70 to extend his lead to five.
Wilson’s dominance continued as he won the next two frames with breaks of 77 and 73 to extend his massive lead.
Make it shinier and nicer – Hossein Vafaei says ‘everything so bad’ at Crucible
Hossein Vafaei strongly criticised the conditions at the Crucible after crashing out of the World Snooker Championship in a 10-5 defeat by former champion Judd Trump.
The Iranian described the famous Sheffield venue as “smelly”, compared its practice facilities to “like playing in a garage”, and questioned the treatment of players in the course of the marathon 17-day event.
“Everything’s so bad – if you ask me if I want to come back here, I would tell you no way,” said Vafaei, who is no stranger to Crucible controversy after playing a rash break-off shot in his defeat by Ronnie O’Sullivan last year.
“Forget the history, you want to go somewhere really nice as a player. You walk round the Crucible and it smells really bad. You go to other countries, and everything is shiny. But here it’s completely different.
“The practice room – do you see anything special? I feel like I’m practising in a garage.”
Speculation over the future of the Crucible, which has staged he tournament since 1977, has been heightened since world number one Ronnie O’Sullivan suggested it should be moved to Saudi Arabia or China when the existing deal expires in 2027.
Vafaei, who made his debut in 2022, is clearly no fan and continued: “Look at the China venues, how fantastic they treat the players, a red carpet and an opening ceremony. The players are treated like stars. But here no one looks after the players, before and after the match no one cares who you are.
“If they don’t want to lose the Crucible invest some money, make it shinier, make it nicer, make it more luxury for the people. If they make it cleaner and nicer, people will enjoy it.”
Trump turned a 6-3 overnight advantage into a comfortable win over his opponent, who cut a frustrated figure after failing to take a series of chances to reach the midway point with more of a chance against the 2019 champion.
Trump was not even required to summon a half-century in a low-key second session, and was more than happy to ease though a potentially tricky assignment and seal his place in the last 16 against either Tom Ford or Ricky Walden.
“I got the job done in that first session,” shrugged Trump. “I knew it was going to be a bit demoralising for him to be 6-3 down after that performance, so today was about getting a few frames early on and knocking the belief out of him.
“Coming into this event I was a lot more confident than I have been in the last three or four years. It’s nice to know I’m into the second round and I’ve got a few days off so I can sit back and watch other people sweat.”
It was a different matter for four-time champion Mark Selby, who is on the brink of falling at the first hurdle after losing his first session 7-3 to debutant Joe O’Connor.
Selby, who questioned his future in the sport after losing to Gary Wilson in the Tour Championship earlier this month, was second best against his Leicester rival, who reeled off five frames in a row to leave himself in a commanding position ahead of Monday’s resumption.
Eleventh seed Zhang Anda followed defending champion Luca Brecel out of the tournament as he was hammered 10-4 by last year’s surprise quarter-finalist Jak Jones.
Resuming 5-2 in front after their abridged opening session on Saturday, Jones chiselled his way over the line with a top break of 60, while Zhang’s 95 in the 13th frame proved much too little, too late.
Shaun Murphy fashioned a 6-3 lead over China’s Lyu Haotian despite a dreadful missed black in the fifth frame that briefly inspired his opponent to claw back a 3-1 deficit and level at 3-3.
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