Ronnie O’Sullivan calls for Snooker 900 tour after Global Championship win

Ronnie O’Sullivan fancies playing plenty more Snooker 900 after beating Luca Brecel in the final of the Global Championship on Sunday night.

The Rocket downed the Belgian Bullet 10-5 in the fast-paced format, played over 15-minute frames with a 20-second shot clock.

The seven-time world champion only narrowly beat amateur player Billy Joe Castle 5-4 in his opener, before downing Kyren Wilson 6-4 in the semi-finals.

The 50-year-old made five centuries in the final on his way to the £25,000 top prize, with Brecel settling for £10,000 as runner-up, having beaten Joe Perry and Florian Nuessle earlier in the event.

Snooker 900 is put on by Jason Francis, away from the professional World Snooker Tour events, but O’Sullivan hopes more tournaments can be put on.

The Rocket sensationally claimed that 70 per cent of professionals would rather play 900 than traditional snooker, although he may have to produce some evidence if that claim is to be believed.

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‘I just love this format,’ O’Sullivan said on Pluto TV. ‘If Jason can make a tour, I think if you asked 128 players, I reckon 70 per cent of them would say we would rather play under this format.

‘We’ve played a lot of snooker today, but we’re not sitting there till 1 or 2 in the morning. We’re not playing a session, thinking, “what time will we get something to eat?” We know where we are.

‘We just love playing, but at some point, you’ve got to know when you’re clocking in and off, you know.

‘Jason’s come up with an amazing format and I just think he’s hit the sweet spot with snooker, really. If Jason gets some sort of tour going, some backing or whatever, I’m sure this will be here forever.’

Brecel was also talking up the short format, saying: ‘I really like this and I would love to be more of them. And I think many players would love to be involved in these kind of tournaments.

‘You also can see, I mean, it’s not like a World Championship, it’s not the prize money or the ranking points, but you can see the players, all of them are really, really focused all the way through.

‘The intensity with Ronnie and me was the same as in the UK Championship final, for example. So that just shows you how special this is.’

The Rocket hailed Brecel as his favourite player to watch of all-time, saying: ‘I know he hasn’t been around for two or three years, we’ve both struggled a bit, haven’t played a lot. But for me, he’s a world-class player.

‘He’s the best player to watch, you can go back to Alex Higgins, Jimmy White, for me, he’s the best I’ve played. I love the way he plays. He gets through the ball, he plays shots. He’s just unbelievable.

‘If he wants to apply himself, he’ll probably be world champion again and up there.’

With the season now at an end, the next time O’Sullivan will be in action is likely to be the Shanghai Masters in July.

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