Ronnie O’Sullivan threatens to quit snooker following ‘shock’ loss

The seven-time world champion described himself as "absolutely useless" after the poor performance.

Ronnie O'Sullivan has indicated that me may be about to retire from snooker after he crashed out of the English Open in a 4-2 loss to 64th-seed He Guoqiang.

Despite being ranked number four in the world, the 48-year-old didn't even make it past the first round of the 2024 BetVictor English Open which is being held at the Brentwood Centre in Essex.

In an interview with SunSport after the defeat, Ronnie the Rocket said:  "I'm absolutely useless, that's why.

"Forget about the Worlds. I'm not even bothered to be honest with you, if I'm going to play rubbish I might as well play left handed."

He added: "Play left-handed and enjoy it, but be useless, or play right-handed, be useless and not enjoy it.

"I haven't got long, I'm not going to deny it, I'm not playing well enough, there's no point in even worrying about it - I've just accepted it now which is quite a nice place to be really.

"I'm awful, it's embarrassing. I miss so many balls."

The Wordsley native continued: "I've been missing balls for the last four or five years and every now and then I'll miss a few less, maybe, and get a couple of results.

"Even in tournaments I've won people have missed mad opportunities to beat me. I can't get away from it, poor, but there's nothing I can do about it.

"I don’t even care, I’m just here to fulfil my commitments to my sponsors, get away from home, travel."

Flashes of the old Ronnie appeared after he went 3-0 up early on then turned on the style with a couple of nice breaks to steal two frames.

However, a few big mistakes in the sixth proved his downfall, and Guoqiang capitalised to take the match.