Phil Haigh
Published November 30, 2025 7:00am
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Ronnie O’Sullivan helped guide Wu Yize to his maiden ranking title (Pictures: Getty)
Wu Yize won his first ranking title in some style at the International Championship and Ronnie O’Sullivan played a part in the success.
The 22-year-old cemented his position as not just one of snooker’s brightest prospects but the best players in the world by beating John Higgins 10-6 in the Nanjing final.
The Chinese star beat the likes of Judd Trump, Zhao Xintong, Barry Hawkins and Zhang Anda on his way to the showpiece, knocking in 13 centuries over the tournament.
O’Sullivan, who was beaten by Jack Lisowski in the last 32 of the event, says he helped Wu on his way to lifting the trophy, by practicing with him before the tournament and mentoring him throughout it.
The Rocket was trying to impart the same kind of wisdom Ray Reardon did to him much earlier in his own career and was pleased to see it pay off so quickly.
‘I was practising quite a bit with Wu Yize in Hong Kong before the tournament that he won,’ said O’Sullivan. ‘I was just telling him certain areas of his game that I think he needs to improve on if he wants to be a winner.
‘If he wants to rely on playing brilliant and winning, then carry on doing what you’re doing, but if you want to be able to play OK and win, then there’s certain things that are just non-negotiable, you know? And I explained to him from my observations and what I thought they were.
Wu Yize won the £175,000 top prize in Nanjing and climbed to world number 13 (Picture: Getty Images)
‘He understood it. So it was good watching him play in China, we were chatting pretty much during and after every game. Just watching him understand and kind of go, “OK, I get it.”
‘And I was like, “listen, it’s up to you now. You’ve seen the difference. You can go back to playing the way you were or carry on how you was winning that tournament. But you’ve got to make that choice at the end of the day.”
‘That was the same when I worked with Ray Reardon, you know, he taught me a side of the game which I never really thought was that important. But having taken it on I started to appreciate the benefits that come of it.’
O’Sullivan has plenty of snooker wisdom to pass on (Picture: Getty Images)
O’Sullivan has high hopes for Wu, who is now into the world’s top 16 thanks to his win in Nanjing, saying he is good enough to go on to dominate snooker.
‘Again, it’s whether you want to play that way, you know. I said, you don’t have to play entirely that way all the time,’ said the Rocket. ‘You never want to change your style of play, Wu Yize, but it’s always good to have another way, just in case things ain’t going great.
‘You’ve got to be able to steady the ship sometimes and play your way back into a match and I think someone like Wu Yize, if he’s able to do that, he could become a dominant player in the sport. He’s that good.’
When Higgins, the runner-up to Wu, learned of his old rival’s contribution, he said: ‘Well done Ronnie!’
John Higgins was very impressed with Wu Yize in the Nanjing final (Picture: Getty Images)
Asked if he would consider mentoring a young player on the tour, the Wizard of Wishaw said he has been approached, but doesn’t see it as something he would be comfortable with while still a professional.
‘I know some of the young boys have asked me a couple of questions to do that and I think I would find it pretty strange to be doing that and then going to play these guys,’ he said.
‘I think I would rather just keep it separate. Maybe when you have stopped playing, then you can maybe try and do something like that.
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‘But obviously, Ronnie’s maybe done it with a few players and now a lot of the players are maybe thinking, who do they want to learn off the best? Obviously, they want to pick Ronnie’s brains more than anybody’s.
‘We’ll see what happens in the future. It’s a difficult one. I’ve never looked too far into the future, which is maybe to my detriment. Who knows? Just live for the here and now, I suppose.’
Higgins won his UK Championship opener on Saturday night, beating Ben Woollaston 6-2, with Wu starting his campaign at 1pm on Sunday against Michael Holt.
O’Sullivan plays his first game in York on Tuesday afternoon against Zhou Yuelong.
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