"There's nothing better than seeing young talent come through" - O'Sullivan thrilled about new snooker academy


The seven-time World Champion was present on Monday night to officially open the Ronnie O'Sullivan Snooker Academy in Boulevard City alongside several VIPs and officials including Dr. Nasser Al-Shammari, the President of the Saudi Arabian Billiards and Snooker Federation.
Saudi Arabia has thrust itself onto the global snooker stage this year, hosting its first two professional competitions with the Riyadh Season World Masters of Snooker in March and the recent Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters. Both events carried huge prize money, with the latter featuring a £500,000 winner's purse - the same amount that Kyren Wilson collected when he triumphed at the World Championship earlier in the year.
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Alongside hosting these big tournaments - including the World 9-Ball Pool Championship that took place in Jeddah for the first time - the Kingdom has made a long-term commitment to grassroots cuesports within the country, with this new facility aiming to improve player and coaching development. The venue will house five Star Xingpai tables - the company that supplies tables to the World Snooker Tour professional circuit.
O'Sullivan - winner of the inaugural World Masters of Snooker - was very excited and upbeat about the role that the Academy will play when he spoke to the World Snooker Tour: "What a place; what a place. What a chance for some young snooker players to come and play here. Very lucky really Saudi have invested this money into it.
"There's nothing better than seeing young talent come through. They've got such a hunger, such a desire for it. They want to win, they want to compete, it becomes their life.
"Got good coaching staff here, Nigel Bond which is great; he's going to bring in a couple more people. I'm obviously going to be here a few times a year so get to play the youngsters and just try fast tracking as fast as we can.
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"The events we've had here, the players have loved it, enjoyed it, so the more events we can have in this part of the world, the better really."
1995 World Championship runner-up and 1996 British Open champion Bond - who has filled a number of big coaching roles in various places in recent years - will be the Head Coach at the Ronnie O'Sullivan Snooker Academy. The former world number five is relishing his new challenge in the Middle East: "Ronnie putting his name to the Academy, a genius; it's an exciting project, one that I'm really looking forward to. We'll see how things go."
Jason Ferguson - Chairman of the sport's governing body the World Professional Snooker and Billiards Association (WPBSA) - has spearheaded and overseen countless projects which have enhanced opportunities within the sport for amateur players. The three-time Crucible qualifier and former top 32 star believes the new venue in Riyadh will further strengthen snooker’s profile and standards within the West Asian region.
"It marks a monumental moment. Snooker's growing very fast in the Middle East. It's been around for a long time, it's had infrastructure, even had teams in our World Cup, but actually what this step is, is taking it to the next level.
“It's taking it to that elite performance level, treating it like a real professional sport, and you can see there is talent around and activity around; it's actually a very exciting time."
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