O’Sullivan threatened to quit snooker if he could not play in China
Ahead of O’Sullivan’s game in the far East tomorrow, the Rocket previously threatened to quit snooker if he could not play in China.
Speaking back in the Autumn, he said: “If I can’t go and do what I need to do, which is play a lot in China, I won’t ever play again. So, we’re at a kind of crossroads now.
“If that gets to the point where I’m not able to do that, I’m not allowed to do that, I probably won’t play.
“I’ll probably go and play Chinese 8-Ball because I still want to play snooker, I still want a cue in my hand.
“There’s just not enough here in the UK for me to justify the effort that I put in.
“If someone’s going to respect me and value me more, why would I not go there?
“It’s like being in an unhealthy relationship with someone, why would you be in that?”
O’Sullivan’s record in China
Four of Ronnie O’Sullivan’s 41 ranking event titles have been won in China.
With four other non-world ranking events won in country.
And he is back in action tomorrow morning at 11.30am!
Tuesday’s Order of Play
Here’s the full schedule for Tuesday – with all of these first round matches:
- Oliver Brown vs Luca Brecel – 6.30am
- John Higgins vs Jackson Page – 6.30am
- Liu Hongyu vs Ding Junhui – 6.30am
- Lyu Haotian vs Aaron Hill – 6.30am
- Stephen Maguire vs Pang Junxu – 6.30am
- Elliot Slessor vs Anda Zhang – 6.30am
- Zhou Yuelong vs Wu Yize – 6.30am
- Cao Yupeng vs Noppon Saengkham – 11.30am
- Ronnie O’Sullivan vs Michael White – 11.30am
- Neil Robertson vs Tian Pengfei – 11.30am
- Matthew Stevens vs Ryan Day – 11.30am
- Judd Trump vs Sanderson Lam – 11.30am
- Cameron Wakelin vs Jordan Brown – 11.30am
Both Ben Woollaston and Fan Zhengyi are already into the second round because they scored walkovers against Iulian Boiko and David Gilbert.
Kyren Wilson flies 6k miles for world open but isn’t allowed cue on train
Kyren Wilson endured a “nightmare” trip to the World Open as his cue took the Long Road to China.
The Warrior, 32, flew from the UK into Shanghai, one of his favourite cities, and then jumped on a three-hour bullet train for the Yushan Sports Center.
Yet snooker cues are not allowed on public transport – so equipment had to be driven separately for 480 kilometres (299 miles) for more than five hours.
World No.11 Wilson said: “The only problem with this event is it’s a bit of a nightmare travel-wise.
“We used to be allowed to have cues on the bullet trains. There used to be no problem with it.
“I don’t know if there isn’t quite enough room to take massive ski tubes on. I don’t know. It’s a little bit frustrating.”