Ronnie O’Sullivan spoke candidly about his aspirations of returning to his best form after beating Ross Muir 5-1 on the opening day of the 2026 World Open on Monday.
The Rocket, playing in his first tournament since the World Grand Prix in Hong Kong, produced a solid performance to win his held-over match from the round of 128.
O’Sullivan was a little rusty at the beginning of the affair but shifted through the gears after the interval, with a maximum attempt in the fifth frame ending on the 15th black before a 114 contribution subsequently wrapped up the victory.
The 50 year-old is desperately looking for confidence in his game after a difficult period during which he hasn’t won a ranking title in more than two years.
O’Sullivan, who has a bye straight through to the last 32 after the withdrawal of Ishpreet Singh Chadha, has stressed that, despite missing several recent events on the calendar, he is working hard in an effort to prolong his tenure at the top.
“I’ve been practicing here. I got here a week early just to do some practice on my own,” O’Sullivan told the World Snooker Tour in Yushan.
“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.”
“It has 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 is playing.
“I thought I’ve really got to try and attack this. I’ve got one last throw of the dice, really. The last three years have been pretty awful confidence wise.
“I’m just trying to work on that and just see if I can get back to delivering the cue freely. If I can’t, then I don’t know how long I can carry on playing.
“I’m hopeful one day, and then I’m really unhopeful the next day. I’ve a little breakthrough and then it goes, and it’s so frustrating.
“But I’ll commit to two years, try and work on it so I can prolong my career basically. Cueing the way I was cueing, there was just going to be no longevity.
“I’ve been working as hard as I’ve ever done – it’s just not been on TV. It’s been behind closed doors.
“I’m just really attacking it now, rather than just hoping something changes. I’m really breaking it down and trying to re-coach myself.
“I started using a certain method a few years ago, and it just really didn’t work for me. It has left me in probably the worst place I’ve ever been in snooker.
“I was saying to a friend the other day that if I could manage to get out of this, I’d say it would be my biggest achievement in snooker.
“If I could come out of this at the other end and feel how I did six or seven years ago, that would trump any tournaments I’ve won.
“I’m under no illusions of 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 to get back to my natural instinct of playing and re-coach myself with the help of other people. I can’t do it on my own.”
Elsewhere on day one at the 2026 World Open, Shaun Murphy fought his way back from 4-1 down to deny David Lilley in a deciding frame.
There were victories too for reigning champion John Higgins, who beat Liam Highfield, and China’s number two Xiao Guodong who pipped Ben Mertens by the same two-frame margin.
World number one Judd Trump and world champion Zhao Xintong are among the marquee names in action on Monday evening’s session.
Featured photo credit: WST
