Ronnie O’Sullivan’s wish is granted by snooker bosses as an announcement is made.

Ronnie O’Sullivan’s wish is granted by snooker bosses as an announcement is made.

Ronnie O’Sullivan is likely to react positively to the World Snooker Tour’s most recent announcement.

The World Snooker Tour (WST) has announced that a new ranking event will

debut next season, with the inaugural Xi’an Grand Prix taking place in August. It is the fifth tournament scheduled in

China since Ronnie O’Sullivan threatened to retire if he is not allowed to compete in Asia more frequently.

Xi’an, the capital of Shaanxi Province in central China, is expected to host some of

snooker’s biggest names, including O’Sullivan, who is currently on hiatus. The Grand Prix joins the Shanghai

Masters, Wuhan Open, International Championship, and World Open as fixtures for the 2024/25 season in China.

The competition will offer a whopping total prize money pot of £850,000, which

will increase by £25,000 over the next two years. It outperforms the International Championship won by

Zhang Anda in November, which had a prize fund of £825,000. This year’s winner will get £177,000.

The news could be interpreted as an olive branch from the WST to O’Sullivan, following his complaints that he was

unable to compete in China as frequently as he would have liked. O’Sullivan and other UK-based stars are under contract

to compete in WST tournaments and may face sanctions if they miss them to attend overseas exhibitions

Not only does the WST calendar now include a fifth event in China, but it also

allows for more exhibition tournaments to be scheduled around the Grand Prix,

which O’Sullivan stands to benefit from following his pleas in November to compete in Asia more frequently.

“If I can’t go and do what I need to do, which is play a lot in China, I won’t ever

play again,” O’Sullivan told the BBC. “So we’re at a crossroads now.

“If it gets to the point where I can’t do it or am not allowed to do it, I’m probably

not going to play. I’ll probably go play Chinese 8-Ball because I still want to play snooker with a cue in hand.

There just isn’t enough here in the UK to justify the effort I put in. Why wouldn’t I go somewhere where I will be respected

and valued more? It’s like being in an unhealthy relationship with someone; why would you do that?

I’d like to be able to keep playing snooker for the next five, six, seven, or eight

years, but if I’m forced into a situation where that’s not possible, I’m not going

to accept what 132 players do, which is to go and play tournament after tournament, week in and week out.”