Ronnie O’Sullivan reveals key dislike in professional snooker – ‘I find it quite revolting’

Ronnie O’Sullivan has admitted that he finds the sight of fellow players accepting mediocrity in the sport as “quite revolting”.

During his run to a sixth world title at the Crucible three years ago, O’Sullivan was scathing about the standard of the younger generation of green baize hopefuls when asked why he was still competing for trophies alongside his fellow ‘Class of ’92’ members John Higgins and Mark Williams.

“A lot of them you see now, you think ‘I’d probably have to lose an arm and a leg to fall outside the top 50′.

“So that’s really why we’re still hovering around, because of just how poor it is.”

O’Sullivan – UK champion in 1993, 1997, 2001, 2007, 2014, 2017 and 2018 – revisited the theme when he was asked about the health of snooker compared to the golden televised era of the 1980s in the UK.

He admits the opportunity to increase his earnings by playing in Asia could see him forced to leave the World Snooker Tour.

“I think there’s a lot of players that people don’t know that don’t play the game in the right way.

“It’s not difficult. I could even extend it to the top 16. I don’t think it’s very hard to be a top-16 snooker player.

“I could probably get away with playing once a week for two or three hours a day.

“I have high standards. It’s difficult. I need to try and put myself in their shoes.

“But I find it hard to put myself in their shoes because I was in their shoes and I didn’t accept top 50 as okay.

“So I’m not a great lover of mediocrity. I’m not a fan of it. I find it quite revolting in some ways when I see people accepting that.

“That’s why I don’t hang around snooker people at venues because I just don’t like seeing it.”