Ronnie O’Sullivan sets tongues wagging with behaviour on BBC broadcast | Other | Sport

Ronnie O’Sullivan showed off his dedication by practising all evening after his World Snooker Championship win against He Guoqiang. The Rocket’s efforts were on full display in the background of the BBC’s broadcast and presenter Seema Jaswal touched on the matter.

O’Sullivan was front and centre throughout the evening broadcast, with his match wrapped up earlier in the day. He enjoyed hours of practice and presenter Jaswal had to address the elephant in the room behind her.

After having a conversation with 1991 world champion John Parrott, Jaswal discussed O’Sullivan’s upcoming game and pointed out: “It’s quite strange that we’re talking about him and he’s right there, but we have been talking to him about it.”

Supporters also noticed, with a fan page posting to X: “Nearly 10:30pm and the Rocket still grinding away on the practice table.” A second added: “Means business.”

This show of dedication is made all the more admirable considering O’Sullivan has admitted he doesn’t always get on well with practising and it can sometimes make him bored. O’Sullivan told TNT Sports this week: “I don’t play as much because I tend to get a little bit bored with just practising now.

“So I do it in stages, I put a little stint in and then I take some time out because I still want to enjoy the game rather than feel like I’m just doing it for the sake of doing it. It’s a different kind of preparation but I still hope to hit form at some point during the year and maybe have one or two good results, but I’m not as relentless as I used to be.”

“I’ll probably be a bit of an underdog because I’ve hardly played for the last three years, compared to John. He’s at every tournament and beating a lot of good players. Rusty Ron comes here and rolls the dice and some of the time they’re sixes, but most of the time they’re ones, the last three years. Hopefully I can throw a couple of fives or sixes against John.

“He’s probably favourite but it’s a different type of pressure. The pressure is off me and probably more on John in this match. But it should be a good game, hopefully I can give him a decent game.”