– You have a chance! – The Crucible bursts into laughter as Williams cues for a difficult shot.
Video courtesy: TNT Sport
Williams has played a few frames of Chinese pool with seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry, a colleague of O’Sullivan, at his snooker club in Tredegar, but he has no ambitions to take up the sport full-time. O’Sullivan made his debut at the Huacai Billiards World Open, a lucrative heyball tournament held last month at the Deqing International Convention Center.
He enjoyed victories over Ivan Kakovsky (15-9) and Soung Kim (15-12) but found pool specialist Zheng Xiaohuai, a multiple Heyball champion, too strong in a 17-6 defeat in the last 32 stage of the lucrative £1.18 million tournament.
Hayball billiards is played on a smaller snooker table using standard eight-ball pool balls, with pocket sizes more similar to snooker pockets than the wider pool variant.
Flashback: O’Sullivan’s ‘whirlwind’ century that narrowly missed out on world record after VAR review
Video courtesy: TNT Sport
“It’s a completely different sport, you know,” O’Sullivan said. “It’s like asking Roger Federer to try one of the best Chinese table tennis players and expect him to win.
“It’s a completely different game, but I like it. It’s just something new, something fresh. So yeah, that’s good.”
“You can’t play snooker and try to play billiards. This is impossible. If I decide to play billiards full time, I will never be able to play snooker again.”
“You can’t do both. You can only be very good at one thing. At this point it’s like, “let me come here and see what it’s like.”
China’s Liu Junyan, the tournament winner, earned a whopping 5 million yuan, or around £550,000 – more than the £500,000 Wu Yijie received as China’s second world champion at the Crucible last month – while the runner-up received 1.5 million yuan (£166,480).
“I don’t play that,” Williams said on Hendry’s YouTube channel. “I played in China a couple of times, but it’s impossible to compete with them. Too good.
“You can’t beat them, can you?
“I haven’t played for a couple of years. I like it, but I don’t play any games. They’re too good.
“If you don’t play every day, you can’t compete with them.
“So you just go out there and you know you can’t win.”
Williams intends to continue playing snooker for the rest of his career.
Williams laughs at funny intro before Kowalski fight
Video courtesy: TNT Sport
He told TNT Sports: “I’ve already made a decision: when I get off tour, I’ll continue to play as an amateur and I’ll travel with my boy (13-year-old son Joel) if he’s still playing. The Welshman is set to begin his season later this month when he competes in the Shanghai Masters, which runs from July 27 to August 2, live on TNT Sports and HBO Max. Add TNT Sports as your preferred source here to enjoy more content like this. TNT Sports’ streaming home in the UK is HBO Max, where fans can enjoy a subscription that includes TNT Sports and entertainment in one destination.