Ronnie O'Sullivan may not have won a historic eighth snooker world championship this year, but he's been getting behind a different kind of 8-ball – trying his hand at a new cue sport in China. And he likes it so much that he's told CGTN he may retire from snooker altogether to switch to it. 

Also known as heyball, Chinese 8-ball is a version of pool with some similarities to snooker, but designed for speed and audience enjoyment. It's played on a smaller-sized snooker table (2.74m rather than 3.66m) with US-style spots-and-stripes balls (57mm rather than snooker's 52.5mm), with the aim of each frame being to pot the 8-ball. 

O'Sullivan took part in the event at the Huacai Billiards World Open, being held in Deqing in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang. After entertaining the visitors by commentating his way through an exhibition match, O'Sullivan beat Ivan Kakovskiy 15-9 and Suung Kim 15-12 before succumbing to Zheng Xiaohuai at the last-32 stage. 

So, CGTN's Zhang Haixiang asked him in an exclusive interview, what's the biggest difference between snooker and 8-ball?

"The only way to compare it would be playing tennis or table tennis, it's such a very different sport," O'Sullivan said. "It's like asking Roger Federer to try and play one of the top Chinese table tennis players and expecting him to win – it's a very very different game. 

"The balls are a lot bigger, a lot heavier, the cushions come off at different angles and the cloth is very different, the cues are a lot fatter – so everything's different really. But I've played for four or five days now, so I'm adjusting a little bit."

The seven-time snooker world champion also admitted that his relative naivety at a different cue sport left him open to tactical mistakes – and nerves. 

"With snooker, you kind of know what your opponents are going to do, you know what you're going to do, you play a shot and you know that's a good shot," he said. "Whereas here, sometimes I think I've played a good shot but then it's turned out to be a really poor shot.

"That's why I felt very nervous. "These guys are playing every day, there's a strategy to it. I don't really know what I'm doing, other than I just try and put a few balls in. I'm like a novice, and many players are watching thinking, 'Why's he doing that?'"

'I'm like a young boy meeting my heroes' 

That potential for embarrassment is perhaps why not all snooker players try 8-ball, O'Sullivan said. 

"For a lot of the foreign players, to just come over to China without any experience, without playing this game on these tables, they know they're going to lose, so they don't even waste their time, they don't even bother coming."

Even so, O'Sullivan has thoroughly enjoyed himself – "I've had great fun, probably one of my best weeks I've had playing snooker, billiards or whatever" – and is glad he's taken up the new challenge, as well as meeting pool players he has admired from afar. 

"I see a lot of the Chinese players on streaming – when I'm away playing snooker I'm always watching," he revealed. 

"So to come here and meet the players, play with them, ask questions – I'm a fan of theirs. I'm like, 'I've been watching you all the time, I'm in awe of you. I know how hard this game is and you make it look so easy.' I'm like a young boy meeting my heroes."

A future in pool 

The experience has opened up a potential new future for the 50-year-old, who told CGTN that at some point he may even give up snooker forever to switch to 8-ball. 

"At the moment, I'm enjoying my snooker, so maybe I'll do another three, four years of that," he said. "Then maybe when I'm 54, 55, maybe a little bit too old to play snooker, I can come here, play some Chinese 8-ball, have some fun, relax."

O'Sullivan – who also backed pool's ambition to be an Olympic sport, saying "Out of all the cue sports, I think pool would be the most suited for the Olympics" – insisted that if he were to focus on 8-ball, that would be the end of his glittering snooker career. 

"You can't play snooker and try to play pool, it's impossible. Impossible," he insisted. "If I decide to play pool full-time, I would never play snooker again. You can't do both. You can only be very good at one. You can't have your cake and eat it."

It might not only be O'Sullivan converting from one cue sport to another, as the champion can easily see the sport going global.

"It'd be great if Europe and America could start playing the game," he said. "The sport is so big here in China, so the prize money is really big." The winner of the Deqing tournament will win around $735,000 - more than the $670,000 prize for the most recent snooker world championship.

"But if you can grow this sport globally I think it would be huge," continued O'Sullivan. "Obviously pool is very popular in America, and the two biggest countries in the world are China and America – so if they can both play the same sport and compete against each other, it could be as big as golf, maybe."

'The greatest place on earth'

O'Sullivan has long professed his love for China; two years ago, he said "For me, it's the greatest place on Earth. It blows me away. Every city just has something amazing about it."

Perhaps it's not surprising then that although this championship was held in the relatively unknown destination of Deqing, the champion has again enjoyed discovering more of China. 

"I come to China a lot to play my sport. I have friends here, I have holidays here," he revealed. "I've been to many cities which are meant to be third-tier, and they're some of my favorite places. Yushan – had a great time there, here I've had an amazing time, Hangzhou was fantastic, I love Xi'an. Xi'an is a great city. 

"I actually prefer those cities because it's more quiet. less traffic, a bit more relaxing. I love Shanghai, it's an amazing city, but it's very busy, very big. Same with Beijing. So I'd rather come to somewhere like Hangzhou, because it feels like Shanghai, but much more quiet."

China's snooker lineage 

As well as enjoying various Chinese cities over the years, O'Sullivan has admired a succession of Chinese snooker players – from pioneering Ding Junhui to Zhao Xintong and Wu Yize. 

"Ding Junhui is the godfather of Chinese snooker," O'Sullivan said. "He was the very first Chinese player to come along and win and he's been so consistent for maybe 20 years now, he'll always be a legend in the snooker world – a little bit like Bruce Lee was for karate.

"He was the first Chinese snooker player to become known all around the world. He's been a great ambassador for Chinese snooker, all the young Chinese players have so much respect for Ding – and Ding has been amazing for snooker."

If Ding paved the way for Chinese snooker glory, it has been taken to a new level by Zhao Xintong winning the 2025 world snooker championship – and Wu Yize winning this year's title. 

"Zhao Xintong is an amazing player. He's always been my favorite player of all the Chinese players, so to see him win the world championships last year was fantastic. To see Wu Yize win the championships this year was great. 

"Yize is an unbelievable talent, an incredible player, and he still can improve so much more as a player, so can you imagine how good he could possibly be? He's an amazing player now, but so early in his career, he's just going to get better and better.

"So we have two very young, great Chinese players having this rivalry. And there's many more young Chinese players coming through."

O'Sullivan has acted as an unofficial mentor to some of these young players, giving them advice to help them improve their games.

"When I see great talent and they don't win the tournaments that I think they should win, that's why I try to speak to them to say 'Look, if you try this, try that, it will help you become a winner.' I didn't want to see this great talent not witnessed by the whole world. I didn't tell them much, just a little bit, but sometimes a little bit is all you need."

Interview by Zhang Haixiang