Ronnie O’Sullivan Announces He Will Retire After the Upcoming Riyadh Season Snooker Championship, and Will Not Play in the UK Championship in November.

Ronnie O’Sullivan Announces He Will Retire After the Upcoming Riyadh Season Snooker Championship, and Will Not Play in the UK Championship in November.

 

 

Ronnie O’Sullivan, one of snooker’s greatest ever players, has announced that he will retire after the upcoming Riyadh Season Snooker Championship, which begins on October 25, 2025. The 49-year-old Leytonstone-born legend also confirmed that he will not compete in the UK Championship in November, thereby signalling a significant shift in his playing future.

O’Sullivan’s decision comes at a time when his form and enjoyment of the game have been under increasing scrutiny. Although he remains a seven-time world champion and has built an unrivalled legacy in the sport, he has admitted publicly that the demands of the professional tour are catching up with him. In a recent interview he revealed: “I’m getting worn-out,” pointing to the gruelling schedule and travel as factors in his decision.

While the formal retirement announcement refers to stepping away after the Riyadh event, O’Sullivan also made clear his intention not to participate in the UK Championship in November. That choice underscores the seriousness of his intent: he is not simply reducing his schedule, but taking a decisive step back from major tournaments. The Riyadh Season event is being framed as his final full-blown appearance in the tour’s higher tier of competition.

His career has spanned more than three decades, during which he has dominated and re-defined modern snooker. From his blistering break-building to his unmatched competitive hunger, O’Sullivan has become both a sporting icon and a cultural figure. Yet, as he approaches his 50th birthday and weighs up the end of his professional era, he has spoken openly about how he no longer wants to play if he cannot do so at a level he considers acceptable. “I don’t want to finish my career feeling I wasn’t really performing to the level that I know I can,” he told reporters earlier this year.

The timing of the Riyadh Season event is also symbolic. With snooker expanding globally and Saudi Arabia emerging more prominently in the sport’s calendar, O’Sullivan’s farewell on that stage reflects both personal and professional transitions: personal in recognising his physical and mental limits; professional in acknowledging the changing landscape of snooker. He has hinted that the Saudis’ embrace of snooker has been one of the positive experiences of his later career years.

By opting out of the UK Championship, one of snooker’s Triple Crown events and a long-standing staple in his career, O’Sullivan is formally closing a chapter of domestic dominance. It also allows him the space to begin the next phase of life—whatever that may hold—without the pressure of appearing and competing in one of the sport’s most high-profile tournaments. Whether he will take up a new role in snooker—coaching, ambassadorial, or otherwise—or choose a path entirely outside the table remains a question for the future.

For fans, it marks the approaching end of an era: a player who has brought style, brilliance, controversy and pure mastery to snooker across multiple decades will make his final bow in Riyadh and withdraw from the UK stage thereafter.

In the weeks ahead, all eyes will be on O’Sullivan’s performance in Riyadh—not just for his usual scintillating potting and break-building, but for the emotional resonance of his farewell. The UK Championship absence will deepen the significance of that final appearance abroad.

Whatever the outcome, Ronnie O’Sullivan’s legacy is beyond doubt. What remains is the story of how he chooses to depart—on his own terms, in a landmark event, and leaving behind a global sport to thrive without him in its current form.