Ronnie O'Sullivan eyeing pinnacle of another sport after snooker retirement

07/16/2024 05:51 PM

Ronnie O’Sullivan fancies becoming ‘the best pool player in the world’ after retiring from snooker, although that is not going to happen any time soon.

The Rocket is still going strong on the green baize at 48 years old, winning five tournaments last season and sitting at number five in the world at the start of this campaign.

He is at the Shanghai Masters this week looking to win a fifth straight edition of the event and lift the trophy for a sixth time.

Undoubtedly snooker remains his focus, but asked if he is tempted by the growing Chinese 8-Ball pool scene, O’Sullivan admitted he is eyeing it up.

In fact, the Rocket doesn’t want to just dabble in the sport, but try and become the best in the world at Chinese 8-Ball after he puts his snooker cue away.

‘Any cue sport fascinates me, so I’m looking at how popular Chinese 8-Ball is in China now. It’s huge, it’s massive,’ O’Sullivan told Shanghai Let’s Meet.

‘Obviously I want to finish my snooker first, but I’ve got one eye on maybe, when my snooker finishes, I don’t know when, three, four, five, six years, I don’t know when that will be…but definitely when I finish snooker it’ll be something I want to go into and play some pool.

‘Maybe give it a go and see if I can win the World Championships and be the best pool player in the world. That would be a challenge for me.’

Other snooker players have already been competing in Chinese 8-Ball, with Mark Williams one of a few who played in the Joy Cup World Heyball Masters Grand Finals earlier this year, a huge event which had a top prize of $700,000 (£557,900).

With the winner’s prize in that tournament higher than the World Championship at the Crucible (£500,000), it is no surprise that snooker stars are tempted by the smaller table game.

Williams has said he intends to play in as much Chinese 8-Ball as he can this season, while still competing on the World Snooker Tour.

O’Sullivan has talked up the possibility of switching to pool before, suggesting at the UK Championship last season that it is only the wishes of his sponsors that are keeping him on the snooker table.

‘I’m trying to see if there’s an appetite for me to go over and play pool at some point,’ O’Sullivan said on his way to the UK Championship title in York in November.

‘I can’t keep playing snooker against the young guys, getting up for it, match-in-match-out, I don’t want to be playing just for the sake of it.

‘I want to keep playing for the next 10-15 years, earning a living, having a good time. China’s a place I like to go, obviously it’s a very popular sport out there. But I’ll just have to see what my sponsors are like because at the moment they’re sponsoring me as a snooker player, but I’m trying to see if they’ll sponsor me as a pool player.

‘To me it’s about keeping my sponsors happy, it doesn’t matter if I play pool snooker, billiards, whatever. I just want to have a nice life. They pay my bills, pay my salary, so obviously I’ve got to keep them sweet and if they want me to keep playing snooker then I’ll have to keep playing. If they’re cool with me to play pool I’ll definitely entertain that.

‘I’d have to get used to the game, but it wouldn’t take me long.’

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