Ronnie O’Sullivan plans to give away Shanghai Masters trophy after beating Luca Brecel – ‘I’m not really bothered’

Ronnie O’Sullivan has revealed he won’t be keeping his Shanghai Masters trophy and will be leaving it in China with a friend.

However, O’Sullivan says he is not “bothered” about the silverware that comes with his latest win.

“I always give them away. My mate Paul’s got one, I gave one to a kid in the crowd.

“I’m not really bothered about trophies. I’ve sold quite a few of them – I don’t want any memorabilia left by the time I’m 70 or 80. I’m preparing for death – part of that is I don’t want no snooker stuff – waistcoats, cues, it’s all going to go.”

O’Sullivan finished off a thrilling win over Brecel with breaks of 143 and 120.

The 143 break secured O’Sullivan the highest-break prize at the tournament, but he said he thought he played “below par” over the week.

“I just tried hard. I mentally thought that plan A was to go out there, dominate and score breaks. Plan B was to keep my focus and emotions in check,” he said.

“I tried not to lose it out of frustration. It was one of those tournaments. I was well below par, but in moments I played alright when I had to. I wasn’t on auto pilot, everything was a bit of a struggle from start to finish.

“When you are in the sweet spot and hitting the ball well it feels like an easy game. It feels like you can do what you want on the table. When you aren’t, you get scared of even coming to the table. It is frightening.

“This game can be so difficult some days and others it can be so easy. I’ve gone two or three years without feeling that I’d missed a ball. I was flying. There were some balls out there that I was missing and I was laughing to myself.”

Snooker was back in China for the first time since before the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019.

For Brecel, it was a strong week as he looks to back up his victory at the World Snooker Championship earlier this year.

“I’m not surprised Luca has done as well as he has,” said O’Sullivan.

“He’s not a surprise world champion. He’s got an amazing gift to play this game. The performance he put on in Sheffield was unbelievable. He has improved a lot as a player and he loves the game.

“He has his girlfriend here with him and they seem to be having a great time. I wish I was at his stage of his career. He is a young man with a lot of years ahead of him. Snooker is getting bigger in China so it is a good time to be a professional snooker player.”