Ronnie O'Sullivan makes strong start to snooker season as five rivals suffer shock defeat
Ronnie O'Sullivan is already showing his class at the start of the new snooker season.
Ronnie O’Sullivan has made a stellar start to the new snooker season, with the Rocket able to watch on as his rivals suffer shock defeats.
It was a disappointing end to the 2023/24 campaign for O’Sullivan, who fumbled the chance to take the Triple Crown at this year’s World Championship.
Dumped out in the quarter-final by 29th seed Stuart Bingham, the shock exit denied O’Sullivan the opportunity to pick up his eighth World Championship title.
Few saw it coming, especially given O’Sullivan had taken both the UK Championship and the Masters titles earlier in the season.
However, the snooker ace hasn’t let it get to him, with O’Sullivan bouncing back strong at the start of the 2024/25 campaign.
He’s already proving his worth at the Xi’an Grand Prix, having romped past Hungarian Bulcsu Revesz at the last-64 stage.
O’Sullivan will now take on Juan Sijun in the next round, but several of the top-ranked players didn’t enjoy such success, as they were sent home early from the competition.
John Higgins was among the shock losers, with the Scot beaten by Thai player Sunny Akani.
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Whereas 2010 world champion Neil Robertson suffered a surprise defeat of his own to local hero and O’Sullivan’s last-32 opponent Sijun.
Elsewhere, Ding Junhui, Zhang Anda and Tom Ford were also forced to pack their bags earlier than expected.
It has at least narrowed the list of potential winners down to a select group, with the inaugural winner of the Xi’an Grand Prix set to take home an eye-catching £177,000.
However, that isn’t even the biggest prize on offer to snooker players this month.
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Instead, O’Sullivan and his snooker competitors will have their eyes set on the astonishing £500,000 prize available to the winner of the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters.
The total purse for the event weighs in at £2,302,000, which is just below the total prize fund on offer at this year’s World Championship (£2,395,000) in Sheffield.
It comes amid a growing relationship between snooker and Saudi Arabia, with O’Sullivan having hinted the World Championship itself could be held in the Kingdom somewhere down the line.
On the prospect, O’Sullivan told Sky Sports: "I like the late nights. In the evening, the atmosphere just gets warmer and warmer. Snooker is really an evening sport, in the mornings it's hard to get going, so when we were playing at 2.30am or 3am I was thinking 'this is fantastic'.
"There was a full crowd there, the crowd were very knowledgeable and enthusiastic, and the facilities as a player are important. Everything was easy for the players and when you're in that sort of environment, you naturally play well and enjoy just being there."