RONNIE O’SULLIVAN has tweaked his snooker cue tip ahead of the Xi’an Grand Prix with the help of rival Sunny Akani.
The Thai player stayed up until 2am modifying the cue for The Rocket after he started earning a reputation as a master cue craftsman.
Ronnie O’Sullivan has had his cue modified ahead of the Xi’an Grand Prix[/caption]
His snooker rival Sunny Akani stayed up until 2am tweaking the cue tip[/caption]
Akani has already worked with O’Sullivan in the past after making a new cue for him in the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters this summer.
And it had an incredible impact as the legendary star, 49, hit TWO maximums against Chris Wakelin in the semi-finals as he banked a £147,000 bonus.
O’Sullivan previously had trouble with his cues after smashing up his original one in January.
The seven-time world champion has not had an easy year after pulling out of a number of tournaments due to medical reasons.
But he is in a confident mood for his clash against Ukrainian Iulian Boiko on Tuesday after he admitted the cue Akani created for him in Saudi was “phenomenal”.
Akani shared a photo of himself working on O’Sullivan’s same cue and making adjustments to it.
He admitted he had a late night making the preparations, despite himself playing in the tournament on Wednesday.
Akani wrote on Facebook: “2am still no sleep for me. I changed cue tip for Ronnie and re-finishing on his cue that Ronnie make 2 maximum in Saudi Master.
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“Ronnie would like to try my Sunny Akani Professional cue tip. It is my honour to changed cue tip for Ronnie.”
Akani will face British star Gary Wilson in the last 32 in the Xi’an Grand Prix.
Known as The Sunshine Kid, Akani is ranked 72 in the world but has still found time for a side hustle working on cues.
O’Sullivan revealed to SunSport this week that Akani was recommended to him by a friend in Dubai.
He said: “It was my friend in Dubai, Muhammad, who I’ve known since 1993.
“We connected about three years ago when I was on holiday in Dubai.
“We just picked up again. And he was saying to me: ‘You must try Sunny Akani’s cue.’
“I thought, ‘Sunny Akani, he’s a snooker player. He can’t possibly make good cues’.
“Anyway, Muhammad kept going on, saying: ‘You will like it, you will like it.’
“And I thought, oh, God, I’ve heard this all before. Anyway, I tried one of his cues. It wasn’t my dimension, but I thought, actually, it’s pretty good.
“I said to Muhammad: ‘Sunny made this?’ He was like, yeah. So, I got Sunny to make a cue for my dimensions, and he made me two.
“I picked one up, and I was like, wow – it’s the one that I had the two 147s with.
“I was like, this is amazing, this is incredible. It’s phenomenal. He’s a genius at what he does.
“It just all came good against Chris. It was amazing to hit two 147s plus a 142. I just felt great.
