Snooker legend Ronnie O’Sullivan has cast doubt over his competitive future following the release of a new documentary surrounding his recent world championship win. O’Sullivan saw off Judd Trump 18-13 in last month’s finale at the Crucible to secure a joint record seventh world title.
The snooker great once again wrote himself into the sport’s folklore by equalling fellow legend Stephen Hendry’s record world championship haul. Despite the triumph though, it seems the Rocket’s love for the sport is not what it once was, casting doubt over the Englishman’s playing future.
During his recent world title triumph in Sheffield, O’Sullivan had a camera crew following his every move around the famous arena, where he revealed his lack of love for the game on the way to his seventh title. He said: “I decided a long time ago that if something got too much pressure, or I thought you know what, ‘I’m not really enjoying this’, then it’s probably better that I lose and let somebody else have that place.
“And I felt that during this World Championships. I didn’t really enjoy it. But I had this film crew following me so I thought, I better try hard because they’re following me. So that was why I won it. It wasn’t because I wanted to win it. It was just that I felt bad for the TV crew.”
Since bursting onto the professional scene nearly 30 years ago, the Rocket has secured his status as arguably the greatest player to pick up a snooker cue. Unsurprisingly, O’Sullivan is always the man everybody wants to catch a glimpse of, but he has now admitted he is all but done with constantly being the sport’s main attraction.
He added: “I just want to enjoy my life you know, but when you’re in the spotlight, everybody gets excited. I’m like, I don’t really want to be that person anymore. I don’t even actually like talking about snooker.
“I enjoy playing it but I don’t really want to be too involved in it. So obviously winning the World Championships, it really turned everything around and everyone was like, ‘Ah you’re world champion this, world number one’, I was like oh no, I don’t want to be known as that person anymore.”
The documentary in question has followed O’Sullivan around throughout the campaign, and no doubt struck gold when the Rocket went on to become world champion at the beginning of May. Discussing the access all areas programme following his Crucible win, he said: “The film makers said they’ve never been granted this kind of access by any other sportsman so I knew we’d be off to a great start. Hopefully fans will enjoy it and get to see everything – and it got a good ending.”
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