Newport so much better than Cardiff for angry Ronnie O'Sullivan

O’Sullivan wowed the crowds as he won the tournament with a stunning 147 maximum break at the Newport Centre last year.

But he was less than happy after his first round victory at Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena this afternoon, a routine 4-1 win over Vinnie Calabrese.

“You wouldn’t look forward to playing in these conditions with the 128 players, the venues can’t really handle it and it is like a car boot sale,” said the outspoken five-time world champion.

“You just have to scrummage your way through the first two or three rounds and put up with the sub-standard conditions.

“I don’t like the new venue here at Cardiff, I thought the old one at Newport was one of the best venues I ever played at so I was gutted to see it go.

“I had played here and knew what sort of venue it was, it is like an aircraft hangar, the atmosphere is not as great and the acoustics not as good.

“It is nowhere near as good as Newport but you need venues big enough to take these 128 players.”

O’Sullivan says the practice facilities in Cardiff are sub-standard and the playing arena doesn’t match up to Newport either.

“Players are using half a practice table each, one guy playing with the yellow as a cue ball,” he said. “If you told people top professional sports people were doing that, they’d say ‘You’re having a laugh’.

“You can’t take it too seriously out there,” he added. “There is so much going on it is really difficult to concentrate on your shots.

“It is like playing in a shopping mall, there are people just walking around all over the place, getting up, it is hard to get your head around.

“Distractions are one thing, you can deal with that, but when people are walking around as and when they feel, the etiquette of snooker is that when a player is on the shot you don’t.

“It is hard to focus on your game. But what it means is you don’t take it seriously because if you do it would really annoy you, so you just smash a few balls around.”