But when asked which venues were his favourite, his answer for his most preferred in the UK was simple – Llandudno.

After his semi-final victory at the Masters last week, a tournament he went on to win, he told SportsBoom.com: “UK-wise, I’d have to say Llandudno, Llandudno’s nice. Other than that I’m struggling. I don’t like dirty. If I go somewhere where it’s dirty and damp I don’t like it.”

Llandudno will host the Welsh Open for the second year in a row after the success of the 2023 edition, which took place at Venue Cymru.

Despite exiting that tournament early, ‘The Rocket’ made the most of his trip to the area, taking part in the Conwy park run and climbing up the Great Orme.

He has previously praised the town, and stayed at the Elm Tree hotel, which he said had provided “superb service and great rooms with amazing views”.

O’Sullivan is widely regarded as the greatest snooker player of all time, with a record 23 Triple Crown tournament wins.

READ MORE:

Inside snooker’s most unlikely couple: How a chance meeting while house hunting led to Footballers Wives star Laila Rouass’s and Ronnie O’Sullivan’s rollercoaster romance

Ronnie ‘The Rocket’ O’Sullivan and his long-term fiancée Laila Rouass are probably snooker’s most unlikely couple and if it hadn’t been for a chance meeting while the actress was house hunting, they probably would have never met.

The Footballers Wives star and the sporting legend, who became the oldest person ever to win the Masters on Sunday, have been together for 12 years now – that is if you include their eight month split before they ‘found a way back’ to each other.

Their relationship blossomed in 2011 after Ronnie called Laila up to view his house that was recently put on the market and was given a tour by his father Ronnie O’Sullivan Sr.

‘It happened by accident,’ she previously said. ‘I was shown around Ronnie’s house by his father, who told his son about meeting me. Ronnie called the estate agent, a friend of mine, and asked me out via her.

‘When he said he was a snooker player I said, ‘yeah but what does he do for a living?’ I’d never heard of him because sport doesn’t interest me at all, although Ronnie’s won me over to snooker.’

It was then their whirlwind romance began and they became engaged in the following year – but to this day the ‘laid-back couple’ are still not married.

Speaking of their long engagement, Laila told the Mirror in 2019: ‘I’d have to really gear myself up for a wedding. At the moment we’ve put it on the back burner and we’re enjoying our time so there’s no rush.’

Ronnie added: ‘It becomes a bit more important as you get older for legal reasons but for now we’re OK. If something’s not broke, why fix it? If it’s working, why change a winning formula?

‘We’ve been engaged for a while now, so we know we want to be with each other, I’m sure we will get round to it. We’re very casual and laid-back about the whole thing anyway. When it happens, it will happen. I love her, I love her company, I admire her.

‘She’s good for me in many ways and understands me and the business and gets it and what I go through.’

But the couple split up after a decade together with Laila making the announcement to shocked fans.

‘After nearly ten years of love and memories, Ronnie & I have parted ways,’ she wrote on Instagram in February 2022. ‘Peace & love to you all. Laila X.’

The separation did not last long, however, and by April Laila was spotted wearing her engagement ring once again.

By May, after a month filled with rumours and speculation, the pair confirmed their reconciliation, before jetting off on holiday.

Laila later confirmed: ‘Me and Ronnie are back together, we found our way back. We just worked it out – back when I announced it, we hadn’t been together for almost eight months at that time.’

Since then, the couple have continued to fight with their own battles, with Ronnie openly discussing his mental health in his Amazon Prime documentary Ronnie O’Sullivan: The Edge Of Everything.

The world champion did not have the easiest start to life. When he was just 16, his father was jailed for the murder of notorious gangster Charlie Kray – real name Bruce Bryan – after stabbing him to death in a Chelsea night club.

His mother also spent time in prison for tax evasion.

Ronnie, who was awarded an OBE for services to snooker in 2016, went on to suffer with bouts of depression alongside problems with drugs and alcohol.

During his documentary he opened up about how his most recent mental health struggles had affected his game, seeing him lose 6-4 to Neil Robertson at the Masters last year.

During the heart to heart, Laila tried to make Ronnie see that the game was affecting his mental health.

She said: ‘I want you to do what makes you to be happy. I don’t tell you to stop or to carry on. I would never put you in a situation like that. I am OK with it.

‘I just think it’s about management. There’s so much self-criticism involved and a lot of time on your own to think.’

Jumping in, Ronnie said: ‘But I think I am much more comfortable with it now than I have ever been.

‘If I didn’t stop before, when I was really uncomfortable, why would I stop now if I feel more comfortable with it? It is as if I have overcome my demons in a way.’

Ronnie opened up about his own mental health and said he ‘never wants to go to the dark places’.

He said: ‘People could see I was imploding I wasn’t very good at having all this stuff locked inside of me. I never want to go to those dark places.’

The snooker star went on to acknowledge how the release of his father from prison in 2010 had a positive impact on him.

‘It did help. It helped having him out, and knowing he’s alright,’ Ronnie added.

‘I have done my time. He did his time. We did it together. Now he is out. He’s happy. Phew, alright, I can just play snooker now because I want to play. Just working stuff out for myself. This is actually good for me.’

The world champion is now in a better place, thanks to the ongoing love and support from his wife.

In May he told the Daily Record: ‘Now it feels a lot better – everyone’s just in a better place. I just want to see her and her daughter happy, and her family, who are like my family, happy.’