Ronnie O’Sullivan’s opinion of Crawley has not improved over the last year as he slams the town and the venue for the English Open again.
The Rocket labelled Crawley’s K2 Leisure Centre a ‘hellhole’ that ‘smelled of urine’ when he played in the tournament last year, and is not looking to make anymore friends in West Sussex this year.
After edging past Jamie O’Neill 4-3 in the first round, O’Sullivan was asked what he would do with his day off on Tuesday: ‘Definitely get away from this place,’ replied the Rocket. ‘Every day in Crawley is a day lost in my life.’
It was put to the five-time world champ that the town must have some redeeming features, which he agreed with: ‘Yeah, the M23 out of here.’
The K2 has made a couple of alterations to logistics for players from last year, which world champion Judd Trump noted as improvements.
However, O’Sullivan is not convinced that things have changed for the better, with the layout especially bothering the 43-year-old.
‘It hasn’t changed as far as I’m concerned,’ continued the Rocket. ‘You’d have to do a lot to change this place, wouldn’t you? You’d have to do an overall refurb on this place, but I’m not surprised, it is what I expected it to be.
‘I’ve just gone from the match table to a squash court to a toilet, where the player’s office is, to outside the building, in the rain, to get round here to do interviews, so I’ll probably end up with a bit of pneumonia on top of the cold which I’ve already got. It’s not ideal.’
The English Open is O’Sullivan’s first tournament in the UK since the World Championship when he crashed out in the first round to James Cahill.
He has avoided too much international travel in recent years on the circuit, but this looks likely to change as he remains unimpressed with the venues on home shores compared to those in China.
‘This is why I’m playing more China events next,’ said Ronnie. ‘They have good venues, proper tournaments, over here they’re struggling for cash, I think.
‘Over in China they’ve got much more resources financially, they can put a better event on. I don’t really want to have to go through qualifying, but I suppose I’ll have to if I want to play in quality tournaments.
‘These are okay, best of seven, bit of fun, get your cueing arm going, but they aren’t the greatest of events really, they’re alright.’
O’Sullivan is back in action on Wednesday against either Yuan Sijun or Igor Figuieredo.
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