Exclusive: Neil Robertson Reveals How Sports Psychology Guided His Return to the Top

Neil Robertson continued his strong form this season, kicking off his 2025 Players Championship campaign with a 6-4 victory over Stuart Bingham. 

This win comes just weeks after Robertson humiliated Bingham 10-0 in the World Grand Prix final in Hong Kong. While Bingham showed flashes of brilliance, narrowly missing a 147 in the fourth frame, Robertson ultimately had too much quality in the closing stages.

The Australian star also extended his dominant record over Bingham, who last beat him in a ranking event over a decade ago in 2013.

After the match, Robertson reflected on his latest triumph over Bingham: “It was never going to be six-nil today, it would have been nice. But the great champion that Stuart [Bingham] is, I knew he’d come into this one with a lot of motivation and something to prove.”

“The standard of the match was really good. I think he faded in the last couple of frames, especially after I pinched that frame to go 4-4. He would have been a really strong favourite if I didn’t pinch that red in the middle, but that was a crucial point for me.”

“I felt as though my record was very strong against him. I’m really happy with the win, and hope it continues.”

A Mental Reset

Just a year ago, Robertson’s career seemed to be spiralling in the wrong direction. 

He failed to qualify for both the Players Championship and Tour Championship, and his season ended in disappointment after losing in World Championship qualifying.

Instead of accepting his decline, Robertson made significant changes. This season, he has already secured two ranking titles—the English Open and the World Grand Prix—and sits third on the one-year ranking list, just behind Kyren Wilson and Judd Trump.

He credits his transformation to a mental shift, sparked by a key realisation after failing to qualify for The Crucible. 

“When I failed to qualify for The Crucible in some ways it almost felt like a relief. Nothing I seemed to do was kind of like working, you know? The thing is like I was practising really hard that season,” Robertson told SportsBoom.com. 

“If you are maybe not practising as hard or you know, being a little bit lazy, then, you've only got yourself to blame in that way. I was losing a lot of matches and, I wasn't even playing particularly bad.”

“Other players get a sense if you’re confident or not, or if you’ve problems. The tour is really ruthless, no one has any sentiment to anyone.”

“When I failed to qualify for the Crucible, I knew I had to change what I was currently doing.”

The Game-Changer: Sports Psychology

Robertson attributes his resurgence to working with sports psychologist Helen Davies, whose experience includes coaching Team GB Olympians, professional tennis players, and rugby union stars.

“I found a really good sports psychologist, Helen Davis, who works with sort of Olympians. She's been with people who've won gold medals and Wimbledon Championships and stuff like that. So, she's of the absolute highest degree.”

“Ever since meeting her and then coming with a plan and just working with her has been just absolutely life changing. The whole structure of my daily routine in life is different.”

“If there was ever a young player that I could give advice to, it would be get a sports psychologist. They, they are unbelievable.”

Alongside Davies, Robertson has also leaned on former Welsh Open champion Joe Perry, who serves as his snooker trainer.

“I always felt don't need one of those. It's just about forming a really great structure for your life. Your practise matches all that. And then combining that with Joe's [Perry] experience, you know, of being a player whose kind of been there and done it and competed in, in all the biggest events and won of few ranking titles himself. It's a really good, really good combination.”

Snooker’s Psychological Gap

Additionally, the 43-year-old believes snooker lags behind other sports in embracing sports psychology, particularly compared to golf and tennis.

“All the top golfers in the world, top tennis players, they've all got sports psychologists, they've all got coaches and people that they work with.”

“I think in snooker we're just so far behind the other sports. Okay the majority of our tour don’t get paid the same to be able to employ people, but I was in a position where I could do that.”

“I think we’ve got a lot catching up to do, it’s a really important thing to me.”

Snooker’s unique mental demands, particularly the helplessness of watching an opponent clear up, make psychological resilience crucial.

“What you’re doing in your chair, it can be more important than what you’re doing on the table in a way.”

“Snooker’s just one of those brutal sports like that. That’s why you always need to be mentally on tops of things.”

A Fresh Approach to the World Championship

Robertson has long struggled to translate his dominance in ranking events into World Championship success. However, this year, he’s taking a different approach.

“Going into this one, I'm not really looking at what has gone wrong in previous years. I'm just attacking it completely fresh, which is the first time I've actually done that.”

“With everything that I set up for this season, things that have happened in the past there are kind of irrelevant. It's good to go there with a clean, fresh mind into things and approaching it in a completely different way.”

With his renewed mindset and strong form, Robertson is determined to challenge for a second Crucible crown. 

If his current trajectory continues, it would be no surprise to see him lifting the trophy in Sheffield later this year.