O’sullivan: Why would I turn back on £600m?

RONNIE O’sullivan joked he would “love to see” a LIV Golf-style breakaway in snooker if someone was willing to offer him hundreds of millions of pounds.

But he was not interested in contributing to the noise around what a possible rival could mean for the World Snooker Tour (WST).

Leading players, including O’sullivan, pictured, are understood to have been approached by Far East backers about the prospect of establishing a breakaway circuit from as early as next season.

O’sullivan has already effectively ruled himself out of any parallel tour by signing a deal to play in WST events in Saudi Arabia for the next three years. But he said if something on the scale of LIV – which has lured some of the world’s best golfers away from the established tours – came along in snooker, he would be more than happy to take the call.

O’sullivan, who is locked at 4-4 with Stuart Bingham after the first session of their World Championship quarter-final, said at a press conference following his second-round win over Ryan Day: “I would love to see a Liv-style breakaway, gosh.

“I wouldn’t mind getting a phone call saying ‘Here, do you want £600 million to play for three years?’” Although the WST recently relaxed its rules allowing contracted players to appear in other events provided they do not clash with its own, the scale of the prospective Far East tour makes committing to both impossible.

When asked for his opinion on whether any players who leave to join a rival tour should be allowed to play on the WST, the 48-year-old said: “I don’t know. I don’t get involved in it.

“I know what I want from the sport and I know what I’m prepared to do. What I need in return from it.

“And as long as I keep getting that then I don’t mind playing. But everyone needs to make that up for themselves.

“We all have different positions in the game, different stages of careers.”

Meanwhile, John Higgins staged a late fightback to trail Kyren Wilson 5-3.

Wilson, runner-up to O’sullivan in 2020, started in fine form with half-century breaks in each frame – including back-to-back runs of 95 and 93 – as he opened up a 4-0 lead by the mid-session interval.

Four-time former world champion Higgins got a frame on the board after a fine clearance of 129.

Wilson, though, hit back straight away with a 121 break of his own before veteran Scot Higgins again dug in, pulling another frame back after a run of 73 and then a clearance of 102 left him just two behind.

In the other quarter-finals to restart today, David Gilbert has a 10-6 lead over Stephen Maguire while Judd Trump and Jak Jones will resume a closelyfought encounter tied at 8-8.