Ronnie O’Sullivan says he is ‘enjoying’ his snooker and ‘would like’ to be in Players Championship

O’Sullivan was far from his best against Lines, who had several chances in the opening three frames, but capitalised on his opponent’s mistakes to win 4-0.

He will play Ross Muir in the next round on Tuesday in Llandudno.

“I just enjoy playing,” he told Eurosport. “I enjoy whatever situation the game throws at me, deal with it as best as I can. It’s just another game of snooker at the end of the day.

“I just try to focus on my own game. I’m not sure what was going through his head. All you can do is just focus on what you have got to do and hopefully make it difficult for your opponent.

“I’ve just been playing the game for so long that you learn to re-focus, get going again. It’s like getting on a bike. Just keep going, keep pedalling and see where it takes you.”

O’Sullivan needs to reach the final of this week’s Welsh Open to qualify for next week’s Players Championship, which sees the top 16 on the one-year ranking list go head-to-head.

Despite winning the Hong Kong Masters and Champion of Champions, which are invitational events, O’Sullivan has struggled in the ranking tournaments.

His best run was at the UK Championship, where he made the quarter-finals before being whitewashed 6-0 by Ding Junhui.

The seven-time world champion revealed he has not enjoyed “two or three tournaments this season” but, overall, has found his current campaign “alright” and wants to be in the Players Championship.

“I’d like to be in it,” O’Sullivan added. “But I’ve booked in a couple of exhibitions for next week [in case] because I don’t want to not play.

“It’s highly unlikely I will make that tournament next week, so if I don’t make it at least I’ve got something else to do and can look forward to going to Thailand for the Six-Red World Championship.”

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