Ronnie O’Sullivan has said that restoring his game to its previous level would be the greatest achievement of his career, after winning in the first round of the World Open.
The 50-year-old beat Scotland’s Adam Muir 5-1 in Yushan, and will progress to the third round after Ishpreet Singh Chadha, his next scheduled opponent, withdrew from the event.
The world number 12 took a 3-0 lead in the match before Muir pulled a frame back, but O’Sullivan finished the match with consecutive century breaks.
“I got here a week early just to do some practising on my own. I know I haven’t played a lot of tournaments, but I’ve been working because my game has been in such a bad place,” said O’Sullivan.
“I’ve decided I really need to attack this now. I have one last throw of the dice really. The last three years have been awful in terms of confidence. I’m trying to work on that now and see if I can get back to delivering the cue freely.
“I’ll commit to two years to work on it and try to prolong my career. Cueing how I was cueing, there was going to be no longevity in it.”
O’Sullivan has not won a ranking event on the world tour since January 2024, when he triumphed 10-7 over Judd Trump in the World Grand Prix final.
“I’ve been working harder than I ever have done, it just hasn’t been on TV. I’m breaking it down and trying to re-coach myself,” O’Sullivan added.
“I was saying to a friend the other day that if I manage to get out of this it would be my biggest achievement in snooker. If I can feel how I did six or seven years ago, that would trump anything.
“Seven World Championships, eight Masters, this would rank higher than any of those achievements. I’m under no illusions how difficult it will be but I’m not going to retire because something I tried didn’t work for me. I’m going to get back to my natural instinct of playing.”
Elsewhere in the first round, defending champion John Higgins beat Liam Highfield 5-3 and Trump progressed with a 5-1 victory over Mark Lloyd.
World champion Zhao Xintong hit two century breaks in a 5-0 win against Han Fuyuan, while Shaun Murphy defeated David Lilley 5-4 in round two.