Ronnie O’Sullivan claims returning to his natural, free flowing playing style would represent the biggest achievement of his career.
The former world No.1’s appearances on tour have been increasingly infrequent this season and opted to skip the Masters for the second year in succession back in January.
O’Sullivan now resides in Dubai having grown tired with life in the United Kingdom and picks and chooses his tournaments, unlike fellow Class of 92 members, John Higgins and Mark Williams, who are still among the most active players on tour.
With the World Championships on the horizon, however, O’Sullivan was back in action on Monday at the World Open having been granted a bye after Singh Chadha withdrew.
The 50-year-old subsequently eased to victory in Yushan with a 5-1 demolition of Ross Muir.
O’Sullivan raced to take a 3-0 lead in the contest before Muir pulled a frame back, but the world No.12 replied with back-to-back century breaks to reach round two where he will face Ishpreet Singh Chadha on Tuesday.
And while there was flashes of his old brilliance, O’Sullivan accepts he is still some way from being the player who dominated the sport at will in his prime.
Retirement, however, is not currently at the forefront of his mind and he remains determined to regain the sort of style and swagger that helped him establish his reputation as the greatest player in snooker’s history.
Speaking after defeating Muir, he told WST: ‘I was talking to a friend the other day and said if I manage to get out of this I would definitely say it’s been my biggest achievement or accomplishment in snooker.
‘If I could come out of this the other end and feel how I did six or seven years ago that would trump any tournaments I’ve won. Seven world championships or eight Masters, whatever.
‘This for me would rank higher than any of those achievements. So I’m under no illusions how difficult that would be but I’m not going to retire, or go out because something that I tried didn’t work for me.
‘I’m going to try to get back to my natural instinct of playing and try to re-coach myself with the help of other people.
‘I can’t do it on my own but I’m getting help from people to just try and relearn again. There’s a lot of hard work to do, I’m prepared to do it.
‘But you have to put a time limit on it otherwise you end up at 75 or 80 still trying to work it out and everyone going is this guy crazy?
‘I have to put a time limit on it and at that point if I feel like I can play with confidence, no necessarily win as much as I used to, but play with confidence and at least fancy the job then great I can hopefully I can continue playing for a lot long.
‘Obviously if I don’t probably it would be very, very tough for me.’