Exclusive: ‘If I turn up, I’m there to win’

Ronnie O’Sullivan says he’s still as motivated as ever to win every tournament he competes in, while revealing he would prefer to play in China over the UK.

The “Rocket” is preparing to begin his UK Championship campaign with a match against Scotland’s Anthony McGill on Tuesday, a tournament he has won seven times.

O’Sullivan has been a dominant force in the sport ever since he became world No. 1 for the first time in the 2002/03 season – following his third UK Championship triumph.

However, he is adamant that he has never lost his motivation to win titles, even if he will pick and choose which tournaments he features at.

“I’ll take any tournament,” he told Eurosport. “I’m motivated to win every tournament I play in. It doesn’t matter where the tournaments are, if I turn up to play, I’m there to win it.

“I’m not coming here just to make the numbers up. But obviously, the next most important tournament for me will be Macau and then after that, it will be the Thailand Six Reds.

“After that in May, June and July I’ll be going to China to do my own shows, so they’re the priority and then I’ll fit in whatever I can around that. I don’t want to play every week.”

Snooker has become more and more popular in China over recent years, with calls for UK tournaments to up their game in terms of player experience.

For O’Sullivan, there is no question where he would rather ply his trade.

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“To me personally, if I could choose any tournaments to play in, I’d definitely just choose the China events,” he said with no hesitation.

“But there are only so many, there are only four or five so you need to play in a few of the UK events, but I would definitely prioritise all the China events over the UK tournaments.

“I’ll be out there probably doing between 10 and 15 trips a year [including] my own events that I play out there that I promote with some Chinese promoters, so I’ll be doing my own invitation events if you like, they won’t be televised.

“We still play at good venues, in front of good audiences and very, very good players. They’re my main things that I like to be ready for because they’re my shows basically.

“And then like I say, I’ll play in other tournaments just to keep my eye in so I don’t embarrass myself when I get out there and play.”

On whether the intense snooker schedule leads to exhaustion, O’Sullivan added: “It shouldn’t put any strain on you, really. You just have to decide what is right for you and what’s not right for you.

“It depends on how you want to approach it. I always make sure if I’m travelling or going anywhere, I have certain ways that I’d want to travel, and certain hotel standards that I have. I make sure that when I’m doing whatever I want to do, I’m doing it to the highest possible standards so it’s comfortable.”

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O’Sullivan also gave his views on the current tournament format and whether it should be amended to protect the bigger names and give lower-ranked players more exposure.

“I don’t really care anymore, to be honest with you. I just play,” he admitted. “If I was early in my career or whatever, or I was invested in the sport, then yeah I’d probably say a tiered system, but for me, it doesn’t matter what system they do, I’ve decided to run my own thing.

“I focus more on what I have to do and I use whatever tournaments I’ve got to have to keep my eye in and playing, and just try and not fall off the tour if I can.”

Eight-ball pool is another example of an ever-growing sport in Asia that has attracted interest from fellow snooker player Mark Allen.

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Asked whether he’d ever be interested, O’Sullivan admitted it’s an option for him later in his career, but he would not just dip his toes in, he would have to be committed to it.

“Not in just the odd tournament, no, because it’s a different game and different equipment,” he explained. “Unless I felt that I could have a chance of winning it then no, I wouldn’t play in the odd tournament because I’ve done that before and it’s not much fun.

“At some point, let’s see how things develop with me in snooker. That’s definitely an option of mine, maybe look at playing on the pool circuit in China.”

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