Ronnie O'Sullivan says that he plans to seriously reduce the number of tournaments he will play next year.
In an interview with The Telegraph, the 43-year-old revealed that he even plans to give the World Championship a miss in 2020 and possibly even further in the future.
O'Sullivan exited this year's World Championship in the first round. Suffering from an illness, he lost 10-8 to amateur James Cahill in one of the biggest ever upsets at the Crucible.
Despite that loss, he has been playing some of the best snooker of his career and is currently ranked world number one.
"This year I played 11 tournaments; next year I’m only going to have to play three," said O'Sullivan.
I only want to play a few games to keep a bit of interest. I’m bored at home. Maybe three or four tournaments a year. Low key ones, where there is no media and no press. So I will miss the Masters, I will miss the World Championship and I will miss the UK [Championship].
I don’t even want to play in the World Championship - all the press and media they want you to do. I’m not here for that. It’s alright for young kids who have never won the world title and it’s their dream. To me it’s overrated. It’s great when you win it - a week later it sinks in. I’ve won it five times mate. It ain’t worth the blood, sweat and tears to me now. That tournament? Probably not for me anymore.
O'Sullivan has made similar threats in the past regarding the World Championship, part of ongoing bad blood between him and the sport's governing body.
"It’s like a broken marriage," O'Sullivan said of his relationship with World Snooker.
"They don’t like me, I don’t really like them. We are living under the same roof. Just for the kids’ sake, we’ll stay together until they are out of education. Then I’m done, you’re done. We can crack on and get a little flat each.
"But if they want to overstep that mark and make my life too unhappy I’m off. You are going to lose out because I am not going to come to your tournaments. I’m going to lose out because really I want to play. So we’re just trying to be nice to each other - trying to tolerate each other."
Picture credit: Shutterstock.com
