The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
O’Sullivan eyes jungle experience after win
Ronnie O’Sullivan celebrated his birthday with a 6-1 win over Michael White at the UK Championship in York before declaring himself ready to tackle the “I’m A Celebrity” jungle next year.
The 42-year-old five-time world champion is the highest-ranked player left in the tournament, which has seen holder Mark Selby, Judd Trump and Ding Junhui all fail to progress.
Despite his confident form, O’Sullivan, who had opened up a 3-1 interval lead over Welshman White with breaks of 132 and 64 before closing out a comfortable victory, suggested he might not be around to defend the title next year should he go all the way at the Barbican Centre.
Speaking in a post-match interview on BBC2, O’Sullivan was asked if he was serious about following the likes of Steve Davis and Jimmy White as a participant on the ITV reality show, even if it meant not being able to play at the 2018 UK Championship.
He said: “I would, a million per cent, I’d do anything now, I would love it. I’m up for it. I used to think ‘no, I couldn’t do that, I’ve got to be a pure snooker player,’ but you get to a stage when you think ‘this is painful and that’s all fun, a good laugh’.
“Everything I do away from snooker is great. I want to do that as much as I can, but also obviously want to play a bit of snooker, do myself justice.
“As long as I am in the top 64, being number one, number 64, doesn’t matter any more.”
O’Sullivan added: “I couldn’t have done that trial last night, though, with the snakes. I’m gonna get trained for it, get used to the snakes.”
Elsewhere yesterday, Neil Robertson, the world number 10 from Australia, was edged out 6-5 by Mark Joyce.
Scotland’s John Higgins, the world number five, held off a recovery from Yan Bingtao of China to progress 6-3, while Mark King knocked out Belgian Luca Brecel by the same scoreline to move into the last 16.