Ronnie O’Sullivan says getting back to form would be the greatest achievement after winning the World Open

Ronnie O’Sullivan said getting his game back to its previous level would be the greatest achievement of his career, after winning the first round of the World Open.

The 50-year-old beat Scotland’s Adam Muir 5-1 in Yushan and will advance to the third round after Ishpreet Singh Chadha, his next scheduled opponent, withdrew from the event.

The world number 12 led 3-0 in the match before Muir pulled the ball back, but O’Sullivan finished the match with a continuous break of a century.

“I got here a week early just to do some training on my own. I know I haven’t played a lot of tournaments, but I’ve been working because my form has been so bad,” O’Sullivan said.

“I’ve decided I really need to attack this now. I really have one last throw of the dice. The last three years have been terrible in terms of confidence. I’m trying to work on that now and see if I can get back to giving the signal freely.”

“I’m going to commit to two years to work on it and try to prolong my career. And given the way I was pointing out, there’s not going to be any longevity in it.”

O’Sullivan has not won a World Tour ranking event since January 2024, when he prevailed 10-7 over Judd Trump in the World Grand Prix Final.

O’Sullivan added: “I’ve worked harder than ever, and I haven’t seen it on TV. I’m taking it apart and trying to retrain myself.”

“I was saying to a friend the other day that if I can get out of this it will be my biggest achievement in snooker. If I feel like I did six or seven years ago, that will trump anything.

“Seven world championships, eight Masters, that would rank higher than any of those accomplishments. I’m under no illusions about how hard it will be but I’m not quitting because something I tried didn’t work for me. I’m going back to my natural instinct to play.”

Elsewhere in the first round, defending champion John Higgins beat Liam Highfield 5-3, and Trump advanced with a 5-1 win over Mark Lloyd.

World champion Zhao Xintong made a double century break in his 5-0 win over Han Fuyuan, while Sean Murphy defeated David Lilley 5-4 in the second round.