'It is a bit of a lottery a lot of the time' - Ronnie O'Sullivan feels snooker would benefit from tiered system

Published 03/03/2022 at 13:18 GMT

Ronnie O’Sullivan is in the hunt for a fifth Welsh Open title, and arrived in Newport on the back of a run to the final of the European Masters in Milton Keynes last week. He said after his win over Lukas Kleckers on Wednesday that he was feeling jaded after a busy period, and he has a solution for that.

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Ronnie O’Sullivan feels snooker would benefit from a tiered system to protect the elite players from burning out.

The majority of events on the snooker tour consist of 128-player draws, with the top seeds having to take part from round one.

O’Sullivan says it is a slog for the top names, who are often competing at the business end of many events, and feels the sport would benefit from having the top 16 in the game parachuted into tournaments at a later stage.

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“Personally I think it would be better if there was a tiered system so a lot of the top players don’t have to trudge through the early rounds, but it is what it is,” O’Sullivan said in his role as a pundit for Eurosport.

“It is a bit of a lottery a lot of the time, as the top players can get drawn against someone who gets a flyer early on and you are caught off guard.”

O’Sullivan feels snooker chiefs have the present structure in place to spice up events and cause upsets.

“It is the way the system is,” O’Sullivan, who beat Lukas Kleckers in the round of 64 at the Welsh Open on Wednesday, said.

“It is designed to cause quite a few upsets as it’s hard to keep going from one tournament to the next.

“If it was a tiered system, the top players would get two or three days off and would be better prepared for every tournament, but you can't and it eventually catches up with you.”