Ronnie O’Sullivan jokes he would ‘love to see’ big-money snooker breakaway

Ronnie O’Sullivan has joked he would “love to see” a LIV Golf-style breakaway in snooker – particularly if it meant being offered “£600m to play for three years”.

Leading players, including O’Sullivan, are understood to have been approached by Far East backers about the prospect of establishing a breakaway circuit to rival the World Snooker Tour (WST) from as early as next season.

The world No 1, who is locked at 4-4 with Stuart Bingham after the first session of their world championship quarter-final in Sheffield, has already signed a deal to play in WST events in Saudi Arabia for the next three years.

That would appear to rule him out of taking part in any parallel tour, but O’Sullivan admitted that if a breakaway on the scale of the Saudi-backed 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 phone call.

“I would love to see a LIV-style breakaway, gosh!” O’Sullivan said at a press conference following his second-round win over Ryan Day. “I wouldn’t mind getting a phone call saying ‘here, do you want £600m to play for three years?’ I’d love that phone call, wouldn’t you?”

The 48-year-old, who is chasing a record eighth Crucible title this week, also moved to play down talk of a potential rift in the sport. Asked whether players who leave to join a rival tour should be allowed to play on the WST, O’Sullivan said: “I don’t know. I don’t get involved in it.

“Each to their own. Everyone’s got to do what they’ve got to do,” he continued. “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. Working more might work for some people, working less might,” O’Sullivan continued. “It’s not just always about money. The most important thing is our time. For some people it’s money. It’s whatever really.”

O’Sullivan had looked out of sorts during the early exchanges on Tuesday as Bingham took the first two frames. the 2015 world champion then looked set for a potential maximum in the next, but came up short of position on the seventh red, allowing O’Sullivan to get on the board with a break of 66.

The seven-times former champion then rattled a routine black into the jaws of the pocket, allowing Bingham to take a 3-1 lead with a break of 90. “The Rocket” returned after the mid-session interval with a fine 116 break – his 206th century at the Crucible – and pinched the next after both players missed chances.

Both players continued to make unforced errors, with O’Sullivan banging his cue against the table after missing an early red in the seventh frame – but a break of 64 saw him edge ahead for the first time. Bingham closed the session with a welcome 72 break to leave the match delicately poised when it resumes on Wednesday.

John Higgins staged a late fightback to trail Kyren Wilson 5-3 after falling 4-0 behind to the 2020 runner-up. Wilson delivered back-to-back runs of 95 and 93 to open a lead at the interval but four-times champion Higgins got on the board with a fine 129 clearance.

Wilson hit back straight away with a 121 break of his own to lead 5-1 but Higgins – who edged out Mark Allen in a thrilling last-frame decider on Monday evening – dug in, producing a break of 73 and a century clearance leaving him just two frames behind.

In the morning session, former world champion Judd Trump ended the first session level at 4-4 with the Welsh qualifier Jak Jones. Trump opened with a 110 break but found himself 3-1 down at the mid-session interval. The 2019 winner fought back to level at 3-3 but Jones produced a 74 break to go ahead with one frame to play.

The world No 44, in the quarter-finals here for a second straight year, should have ended the session in front but missed a pink into the middle with Trump needing a snooker. The No 3 seed got it, and then sunk a brilliant double on the final black to leave the match all-square going into Tuesday’s evening session.

On the other table, David Gilbert built a commanding 7-1 lead over Stephen Maguire in a battle between two qualifiers. Gilbert, a semi-finalist here in 2019, produced breaks of 83, 110 and 130 and won the final frame on the black to leave his frustrated opponent with a mountain to climb.