The snooker season may be over for the sport’s leading names, but there is no time to rest for world champions Ronnie O’Sullivan, John Higgins and Judd Trump, who have all travelled to China to compete in a series of lucrative exhibition matches. Meanwhile, new Crucible champion Kyren Wilson enjoyed a trip to Stamford Bridge to parade the sport’s most coveted trophy before the Chelsea fans.
John Higgins enjoyed a 5-3 win over fellow ‘Class of ’92’ icon Ronnie O’Sullivan in a lucrative exhibition match in the Chinese city of Chengdu over the weekend.
The four-time world champion also completed a 5-4 win over Judd Trump, entertaining the crowd with a series of century breaks at the Sichuan Provincial Stadium to show he has lost none of his class after turning 49 on Saturday.
It came a few days after O’Sullivan produced a 134 break in a 5-2 win over Ding in a rare outdoor match on Wednesday at the Longmen Grottos in Luoyang before easing to a 5-1 win on the second night of their exhibition.
O’Sullivan is due to continue his pre-season tour of China with further challenge matches involving Zhang, Jack Lisowski, Si Jiahui and Marco Fu in Kunshan this week (May 21-22) and Shanghai next weekend (May 25-26).
He is also due to travel to Tampere in Finland (June 3-5) and Bulgaria (June 7-8) where he will again face Higgins firstly in Plovdiv, and then in Sofia.
The seven-time world champion will return to Shanghai in July where he will chase a fifth-straight title victory and sixth overall at the Shanghai Masters (July 15-21).
Meanwhile, new world champion Kyren Wilson will travel to Finland next weekend for his first competitive action since his 18-14 win over Jak Jones in the 48th Crucible final earlier this month.
The Kettering player faces Ryan Day at the Helsinki International Snooker Cup on Saturday with Trump, Lisowski, Luca Brecel, Stuart Bingham, Robert Milkins and Jimmy White also set to compete in the Finnish capital.
Chelsea fan Wilson was a guest of the London club on Sunday as he paraded the World Championship trophy at Stamford Bridge before watching Mauricio Pochettino’s side defeat Bournemouth 2-1 on the final day of the Premier League season.
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