Ronnie O’Sullivan urges snooker bosses to grow the women’s game after win over Ng On-yee at Hong Kong Masters

Ronnie O’Sullivan wants snooker to provide women players with the competitive environment that is afforded those who compete at the top level in golf and tennis.

Women players on the WTA compete for huge sums, and the grand slams offer similar prize funds to men, while the LPGA and LET are thriving golf tours.

Those are in stark contrast to snooker, with little funding even among the elite of the game – which has seen the likes of Reanne Evans and Ng On-yee given cards to play on the men’s circuit.

Ng took on O’Sullivan in the Hong Kong Masters on Friday, in front of the biggest crowd in the history of the sport.

“It is good experience for the girls to play in as many matches against the top guys – or any guy on the tour,” O’Sullivan said. “It is much tougher in depth than the women’s tour.”

While O’Sullivan feels it is good for women to compete against men, he would like to see those running snooker to grow the game and give them a tour of merit.

“It would be nice to see snooker doing the same for girls what tennis and golf (do), where they have their own tour that is worthwhile playing on,” he said. “As it is they have to play on the main tour and it is tough.”

O’Sullivan’s win over Ng at the Hong Kong Coliseum set up a semi-final clash with Neil Robertson, and the Rocket feels he will need to up his game to beat the Australian.

“It will be great if we can have a massive crowd tomorrow,” O’Sullivan said. “Neil is the most consistent player on the tour by a long way, I play okay in spells, so I am going to have to find some good stuff to have a chance of winning.”

Reflecting on the event, as international snooker returned to Asia for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic, O’Sullivan was delighted to play in front of enthusiastic fans.

“It was nice,” he said. “Every event in Asia is fantastic. They support it really well. It was nice to play in front of an enthusiastic crowd, and it makes you want to play well for them.”

The eight-player field is not everyone’s cup of tea, but it lit a fire in O’Sullivan.

“You have eight high-quality players,” the world champion said. “A lot of the tournaments we play in there are 128 players, there are a lot of nothing matches. Here, every match is capable of being a final.

“To play against top-quality opposition, knowing you need to be at your best motivates you to do well.

“These are special events and you want to try and play in as many as you can.”

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