Ronnie O'Sullivan reveals plans to play his snooker abroad next season – 'I'm going to miss UK ones'

ByEurosport

Published 11/05/2023 at 12:04 GMT

Ronnie O'Sullivan has revealed plans to focus his attention on Asia next season when snooker returns to China for the first time since 2019. The seven-time world champion believes his interests are best served by appearing overseas rather than committing to events in the UK. "I think at this stage of my career, obviously Asia’s a big place to play," said the 39-time ranking event winner.

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Ronnie O'Sullivan has revealed he is ready to abandon home comforts to focus his energies on snooker's big return to Asia next season.

The world No. 1 intends to prioritise participating in every event outside the UK which will see him fly to China for the Shanghai Masters (September), Wuhan Open (October) and International Championship (November) in the first half of the 2023-24 season.

As Eurosport revealed on Tuesday, he also intends to return to Hong Kong to defend his title at city's 12,500-capacity Coliseum, the sport's biggest global venue, if a date in the calendar can be thrashed out by tournament organisers.

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Further appearances will see the game's biggest draw fly to Thailand for the Six-Red World Championship near Bangkok in March.

He also told Eurosport in an exclusive interview before the World Championship in April that an event in India has already been pencilled into his diary.

“I’ve gone the other way now, I’m going to travel and play all the overseas tournaments and miss all the UK tournaments,” said O'Sullivan in an interview with talkSPORT to promote his new autobiography Unbreakable.

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“I can’t do it all. Before I used to say, ‘I won’t travel, I’ll stay in the UK’, which was sweet, but now I think at this stage of my career, obviously Asia’s a big place to play, bigger tournaments, so I’ll do them and miss the UK ones.

“If I don’t do well in the Asian ones than I’ll get home early and then I don’t mind hopping on a plane and going to Scotland or Belfast but, if I do well, I want to have a week at home, chill out with the dogs and then get back on a plane and go back to India or wherever.”

There are 16 ranking events provisionally scheduled so far ahead of the 2023/24 campaign and six non-ranking tournaments.

China last staged a World Snooker Tour competition in November 2019 when Judd Trump claimed the World Open before the pandemic decimated the sporting calendar in 2020.

Despite focussing on travelling abroad, O'Sullivan is still likely to be seen at several key events in the UK.

He won the last Champion of Champions in Bolton last November and describes York, home of the UK Championship, as one of his favourite cities on the professional circuit.

He also qualifies automatically for the elite Masters in January with the top 16 in the sport guaranteed a place at Alexandra Palace in London with the Crucible's 48th World Championship in Sheffield ending the season in April.