• Snooker World Championship

Crucible final too long - Robertson

Crucible champion Neil Robertson believes a move to reduce the number of frames in the Snooker World Championship final would benefit the event © Getty Images

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Newly-crowned world champion Neil Robertson has called for the event's final to be cut from 35 frames to a maximum of 29.

The Australian won the title in a marathon final by beating Graeme Dott 18-13, with the final session of the match finishing at 12.54am. The late finish saw television audiences dwindle as the tense finale to a wonderful two weeks of competition moved along at a sluggish pace and Robertson admits a change to the length of the final could be a positive move.

"It's a format that can be a little bit hit and miss," Robertson told the Daily Mail. "Monday night was a really late finish and a really gruelling match.

"Maybe making the final the first to 15 frames is enough. If you can't beat someone in that many frames then you can't have any excuses. It's very tough on the players. I went back to my apartment between the afternoon and evening sessions for half an hour; then had to get ready again. It's very tiring."

The 28-year-old was shocked by the current allegations of match-fixing being faced by former Crucible champion and current world No. 1 John Higgins and understands that his Crucible triumph might be overshadowed by the scandal.

"You'd be lying if you said you weren't surprised by the story, but this was all about me and my country. I couldn't be happier with the reaction of Barry (Hearn, the chairman of snooker's governing body) so far. He is the man to take the game forward and I'm sure he's the right man to ask these tasty questions.

"People can tarnish my win if they want. I have no control over how the story comes out. Then it's down to how the public react.

"Being world No. 1 would be fantastic but you'd like to do it by finishing the year as No. 1 without anything happening off the table to someone else's ranking. Obviously it won't make any more enjoyable or anything like that if it happens.

"There's a lot of added responsibility now I'm world champion, not just here but for all the people back home. I've probably been dealing with it anyway because I've always been representing Australia and if there was any hope of more Aussie players coming through I had to have a good reputation."

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