Ronnie O'Sullivan's retirement plans, Middle East move and new tournament chance
Ronnie O’Sullivan continues to keep snooker followers guessing following his comeback appearance at the World Championship, where he reached the semi-finals
There are fresh doubts over the future of Ronnie O’Sullivan following his appearance at the World Snooker Championship.
Until just days before the event started, it hung in the balance if the seven-time Crucible victor would appear in Sheffield, given he hadn’t played competitively since smashing his cue and binning in during a round of Championship League action in January.
Snooker fans sighed in relief as O’Sullivan did take part. Nevertheless, even as he reached the semi-finals, the 49-year-old cut a largely disgruntled figure, voicing both cue and confidence issues. The snooker world is now awaiting his next move with bated breath. Here’s the current state of play in the world of Ronnie O’Sullivan…
TV job rejection
The Rocket has been a regular in the Eurosport/TNT Sports studio, contributing his expertise as a pundit at events, whether he has been playing or not.
But O’Sullivan did not linger after his departure from the Crucible at the hands of Zhao Xintong, choosing to pass on the chance to work on the rest of the tournament. Quizzed by a TNT Sports reporter if he’d be providing analysis for the final, he said: “I won’t be there for the rest of this tournament. I’ll be going home now.”
However, as he clearly has a strong relationship with TNT, where his great mate Jimmy White is a regular pundit, expect to see O’Sullivan in the studio for years to come. That is both before and after snooker retirement, whenever that comes.
Latest retirement stance
O’Sullivan has been flirting with the idea of retirement for years, but his somewhat complicated relationship with snooker keeps pulling him back. Following his exit from the World Championship, speculation about his future inevitably arose.
True to form, O’Sullivan offered an ambiguous perspective on his future. However, he did signal his intention to stay in the game, albeit possibly with less frequent tournament appearances. He said: “I’ll still try and play snooker but I don’t know what the future looks like for me really.”
Nevertheless, should O’Sullivan’s appearances grow increasingly scarce, it’s possible he might drop out of the top 16, which would require him to qualify for major events such as the UK Championship and World Championship and sideline him completely from the Masters, which is reserved for the top 16 only.
Nonetheless, O’Sullivan has consistently made clear that his motivation is rooted not just in victory but in enjoyment. Prior to the World Championship, he said: “I don’t have to win tournaments, but I just want to feel like I’m enjoying the game. I’d like to go out with a smile on my face.”
Middle East move
In the aftermath of his defeat to Zhao, O’Sullivan detailed his plans for a significant lifestyle change, including relocating from the UK. He said: “I think I’m going to be moving out of the UK this year. A new life somewhere else.
“I’m moving away soon so I’ll just see how it goes. There’s a lot of more important things in life to worry about than a game of snooker. For me, it’s a big part of my life but I’ve got to try and figure out what my future looks like, whether it’s playing or not. I’ll be moving away to the Middle East but we’ll see how it goes. I might be back in six months, who knows?”
O’Sullivan, who recently split from long-term partner Laila Rouass, added: “There are going to be a few changes in my life so we’ll see how that goes.”
New tournament chance
O’Sullivan could find himself back at the Crucible next year, but in a completely different tournament. Following the end of an agreement between the World Snooker Tour (WST) and World Seniors Snooker (WSS), any WST player over the age of 45 can now play in WSS events, provided they don’t clash with WST tournaments. Previously, only players outside the top 64 and over the age of 40 could take part in WSS events.
As the World Seniors Championship follows the main event in Sheffield, O’Sullivan, Mark Williams and John Higgins could conceivably play in both. And the Rocket will know all about WSS, whose chairman, Jason Francis, also happens to be his manager.