Robertson hopes to drive Aussie snooker sky high
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Neil Robertson said he hoped his world championship win on Tuesday would inspire his native Australia to go crazy about the sport.
Robertson triumphed in the final at The Crucible theater in Sheffield, northern England, beating Scotland's Graeme Dott 18-13 to claim the title for the first time.
He is the first Australian world champion of the knockout era and the only one to win a world title other than Horace Lindrum in 1952.
"If this doesn't do anything (for snooker in Australia) then I probably won't call myself Australian any more!" joked the Thunder from Down Under, clutching the Australian flag as he celebrated victory.
"Australians love world champions and Olympic champions and stuff like that and it would have been a big blow if I'd have lost in the final.
"I had all sorts of those kinds of pressures to deal with as well.
"Hopefully this can start something special and we can start to get events out there now."
Robertson recalled how he came over to Britain as a teenager in a bid to establish himself on the snooker circuit.
"I had three goes at it really and didn't do any good and there's no way in the world any of the guys who would have beaten me would have thought I could do what I've done.
"I just kept persisting with it. I came over to Cambridge with 500 pounds in my pocket and I had to borrow a waistcoat off another Australian player, I couldn't afford to buy one but I could probably buy a few more now."
Robertson has now risen to No 2 in the world rankings following his triumph.
Dott, the 2006 world champion, is reestablishing himself as one of the major forces in the game after battling depression.
"Neil thoroughly deserved to beat me. I thought he played by far and away a lot better than I did," he said.
"I've played really well. Obviously I'm disappointed to lose in the final and not really perform.
"But I needed to get to the semifinals to get back in the top 16. I managed to do that and I've played really well so hopefully I'll be back for next year."
