RONNIE O’SULLIVAN claims rebuilding his technique in his 50s and “re-coaching” himself to a successful standard would represent his “biggest achievement or accomplishment in snooker”.
In a glittering career, the sport’s greatest cueist has hit 17 maximum breaks, compiled more than 1,300 centuries and won seven World Championships, eight Masters crowns and eight UK Championships.
These are unprecedented numbers and feats and few who watch snooker would agree with his sentiment that his game has “been in such a bad place”, four years on from his last Crucible triumph.
Yet three months since turning 50, he feels his next big challenge is to reinvent himself and iron out his cueing action, having tried a “certain method” that he claims did not work.
Ever the perfectionist, O’Sullivan spoke at length to the World Snooker Tour about his plans – and how he would walk away from the sport in 2028 if the situation does not improve.
His 5-1 World Open first-round win over Scotsman Ross Muir – he was seven balls away from a 147 in frame five – was just his fifth match in 2026.
RON WAY DOWN
‘Last throw of the dice’ – Ronnie O’Sullivan announces retirement date
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O’Sullivan, now down to 12th spot in the world ranking following periods of inactivity, said: “I’ve been practising here (in China). I got here a week early just to do some practice on my own.
“I’ve been working really hard on my game. I know I haven’t played a lot of tournaments. But I’ve been working really hard on my game, just because it’s been in such a bad place.
“It’s not like I haven’t been playing. It’s not like I’ve got my feet up while everyone’s playing. I’ve got one last throw of the dice really.
“The last three years have been pretty awful, really, confidence-wise, just playing the game.
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“So I’m just trying to work on that now and just see if I can get back to just delivering the cue freely.
“If I can’t, then I don’t know how long I can carry on playing how I have been playing for the last three years. I’m hopeful one day and then I’m really unhopeful the next day.
“I have a little breakthrough and then it goes and it’s just so frustrating.
“But I’ll commit to two years and try and work on it, so I can prolong my career basically.
“Playing how I was playing or cueing how I was cueing, there was just going to be no longevity in it.
“I’ve been working as hard as I ever have done. Just not being on TV. It’s been behind closed doors.
“I’m trying to really attack it now rather than just hoping something changes.
“I’m really breaking it down and trying to re-coach myself if you like.
“I started using a certain method a few years ago and it just really didn’t work for me.
“It’s kind of left me in probably the worst place I’ve ever been in snooker-wise, really.
“I was saying to a friend the other day, I said, if I manage to get out of this, I’d definitely say it would be my biggest achievement or accomplishment in snooker.
“If I could come out of this the other end and feel how I did six or seven years ago.
“That would trump any tournaments I’ve won – seven world championships, eight Masters, whatever.
“This, for me, would be ranked higher than any of those achievements.
“I’m under no illusions how difficult it will be, but I’m not going to retire or go out because something that I tried didn’t work for me.
“I’m going to try and get back to my natural instinct of playing and try and re-coach myself in some sort of way with the help of other people. I can’t do it on my own.
“I’m getting help from people and just trying to re-learn again.
“If that doesn’t work, then obviously in two years I’d have to really consider.
“I probably wouldn’t be able to carry on if it doesn’t get somewhere near how I feel like I need to be.”
O’Sullivan – who faces fellow Dubai resident Matthew Selt in the Last 32 – continued: “There’s a lot of hard work to do. I’m prepared to do it but obviously you have to put a time limit on it.
“Otherwise you end up at 75 or 80 still trying to work it out. Everyone will be like, is this guy crazy?
“I’ve to put a time limit on it and at that point if I feel like, yeah, I can still play with confidence, not necessarily win as much as I used to.
“If I can at least fancy the job, then great. Hopefully I can continue playing for a lot longer. But if I don’t, then it will be very, very tough for me.”