Ronnie O'Sullivan qualifies for final rounds of lucrative heyball event on competitive debut

O'Sullivan moves through to the last 32 of the competition held in Deqing when the draw becomes a straight knockout affair.

One of the biggest events on the heyball calendar, the 12-day World Open 'World Finals' - running between May 28 to June 8 and sanctioned by the World Pool Association - features esteemed cueists from across the globe.

A recent winner of both the World Seniors Snooker Championship and Global Snooker 900 Championship, 50-year-old O'Sullivan remains on course for a whopping first prize in excess of £500,000 (5 million Chinese Yuan) in the Far East.

Having been present for the opening ceremony last Friday evening - during which 'The Rocket' also performed in an exhibition doubles match - O'Sullivan avoided the opening rounds and entered the fray at stage three which started on Wednesday.

In his debut competitive heyball match, O'Sullivan impressed with five break-and-run clearances in a comfortable 15-9 win over Ivan Kakovskiy.

That victory gave O'Sullivan two chances in the double elimination format to qualify for the last 32 knockouts.

Next up, the seven-times world snooker champion - who has played all his matches on the main feature table, so far - faced one of the world’s top women pool players in Chen Siming from host nation China.

A former world 9-ball pool, and two-time heyball champion, Chen was already a formidable opponent, but O’Sullivan’s task was made even tougher with a tournament rule that allows all women and under-14 contestants to receive a ball’s handicap each frame.

Chen ran out a 15-5 winner, meaning she qualified for phase four with a game to spare, while O’Sullivan went to the losers’ side of the draw.

Now effectively a knockout situation for those left playing, 41-time snooker ranking event winner O’Sullivan returned later on Thursday to play Korean youngster Suung Kim in a must-win match to keep his hopes alive. And that’s exactly what he did with a 15-12 victory.

Heyball pool is essentially a hybrid cuesport, bringing together elements from several different baize disciplines. It is played on a small-sized snooker table with a napped cloth, and with 'American Pool' balls (which are bigger and heavier than snooker balls) consisting of spots and stripes. The pockets and its sizes are cut similar to what you associate with professional matchplay snooker.

There are nuances to the rules, but in simple terms, the aim of the game is for a player to pot all the balls in their set (either spots or stripes) and then the black 8-ball to win the frame.

In recent times, O'Sullivan - who has not won a title on the professional snooker circuit in over two years - has expressed his desire to play on the heyball (sometimes also referred to as Chinese 8-ball pool) scene in the future.