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Ronnie O’Sullivan is preparing to start “a new life somewhere else”, revealing he will soon be moving to the Middle East after crashing out of the World Snooker Championship with a heavy semi-final defeat.
O’Sullivan’s bid for an eighth Crucible crown ended in a humiliating 17-7 loss to Zhao Xintong with a session to spare on Friday after the Chinese star won all eight frames in the morning before finishing the job in the evening.
Before his arrival in Sheffield, the 49-year-old had not played on the tour since he withdrew midway through his Championship League group in January, snapping his cue after losing four of his five matches.
He then struggled with his new cue during the world championship, getting through three tips in all and changing his tip and ferrule after the first session of the semi. But although his run to the last four provides some cause for optimism, O’Sullivan admitted he does not know what the future holds, with a move from the UK to the Middle East on the horizon.
“I think I’m going to be moving out of the UK this year. A new life somewhere else,” he said. “I’ll still try to play snooker but I don’t know what the future looks like for me really. 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 to 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. There are going to be a few changes in my life so we’ll see how that goes.”
His semi-final exit has certainly been keenly felt by snooker fans at the Crucible. They have reacted angrily to being refused refunds for what was meant to be the fourth session of the semi-final, meaning there will be no competitive action on Saturday afternoon.
An exhibition featuring Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor, 40 years on from the latter’s victory in their famous final will take place instead. The World Snooker Tour said its box office terms and conditions meant it was “unable to offer ticket refunds or exchanges”, news which has not gone down well with spectators expecting to see seven-time champion O’Sullivan.
Responding to the announcement on X, Andy Wilson wrote: “Like both Steve and Dennis but I paid £115 for my seat yesterday. Endlessly rolling out the old guys isn’t an answer today. But WST do like to keep their money. Refunds can and should be made.”
Another response, from Luigi di Falco, read: “It’s pretty much daylight robbery. Those semi-final tickets were so expensive to not offer refunds you should be ashamed.”
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In a statement, the WST said: “We are putting together a fantastic exhibition this afternoon featuring all-time snooker legends. We realise that fans come from all over the world to enjoy the Crucible experience so our intention is to provide the best possible entertainment in these circumstances. This is the first time in over a decade that a semi-final has finished a session early so it is a very rare occurrence and unfortunately beyond our control.”
Zhao will face either Mark Williams or Judd Trump in the final, with Williams taking a 13-11 lead into the last session of their semi-final.
Williams, who was 7-3 down at one stage, found himself 10-9 behind when Trump responded to losing the opening frame on Saturday morning with back-to-back breaks of 71.
However, the 50-year-old Welshman then won four of the next five frames with the aid of breaks of 73, 84 and 62, with only a superb 64 from Trump in frame 23 preventing the damage from being even worse.
