The legends of the sport meet at the Helsinki Messukeskus.
The most successful snooker player of all time Ronnie O’Sullivan will arrive in Helsinki next January. An English star and another sports legend, a Scotsman John Higginswill play two exhibition matches at Messukeskus on Saturday, January 25.
The event is organized by the only professional player in Finnish snooker history Robin Hull and in the 1990s ranked among the top domestic players Henri Väisänen. Väisänen represented Finland in the Under-21 World Championships in India in 1991, won by O’Sullivan.
Hull tells Urheilu that the matches between O’Sullivan and Higgins in Helsinki will be played using the best-of-11 system. Therefore, six won sets are required to win. The first match starts at 14:30 and the second at 19:30.
According to Hull, the audience capacity for the matches is over 3,000 spectators. The venue is the largest snooker arena not only in Finland but also in Europe.
Higgins arrives in Finland for the first time, but for O’Sullivan, the visit is the second in a year. In June, O’Sullivan played three sold-out exhibition matches in the 2,000-seat Tampere house with his compatriot Gary Wilson against. Hull was also the organizer of that event.
Although Messukeskus’ grandstand capacity is more than a thousand more than in Tampere-talo, in Helsinki, the spectators sitting in the top rows can get about ten meters closer to the game table than in Tampere, according to Hull.
Born in 1975, O’Sullivan and Higgins made their professional tour debuts in 1992. Together they have won 11 World Championships (O’Sullivan leads 7–4), 11 UK Championships (8–3 for O’Sullivan) and 10 Masters (8–2 O to ‘Sullivan).
O’Sullivan has won the most ranking tournaments affecting the world rankings in snooker history. He has 41 of them on his CV. Higgins has 31 ranking titles, which is the third most among snooker professionals.
O’Sullivan and Higgins have also bagged the most streaks of 147 points, i.e. maximum breaks in professional tournaments (15–13 for O’Sullivan).