Jobshut

Thirteen years ago, today’s world number one snooker player Ronnie O’Sullivan probably didn’t think that in 2022 he’d be taking part in what might be the biggest tournament in the history of the sport. At that time, he was predicting the impending demise of the pool-like game.

In 2009, O’Sullivan famously said professional snooker—a historically British ball and cue sport in which bow-tie and waistcoat-clad players compete in intense silence—was on “a downward spiral.” “It just feels boring,” he said, as tournament spon…