Pro snooker player Sean OSullivan

Rising snooker star Sean O’Sullivan has endured a tough start to life on the professional circuit – but knows time is on his side as he bids to leave his mark on the World Snooker tour in 2013.

The 18-year-old practices at Upton Park Snooker Centre on a regular basis and in his first year as a professional – having joined the ranks in May – has found the going tough.

However, O’Sullivan is not about to get disheartened by his form and insists his best snooker is still to come.

“It is a hard school at the top, but I have to just keep trying my hardest and keep it up,” said the player nicknamed ‘The Storm’.

“I have a further year and a half on the tour before people start dropping off, so there is plenty of time to improve.

“I didn’t really have too many expectations after turning professional. I just want to try and win as many matches as I can and then go from there.”

Unfortunately, it’s not going as planned for O’Sullivan – no relation to four-time world champion and namesake Ronnie – having only won three of his 21 matches.

His opening victory came against Tamworth’s David Gilbert at a European tour event in Belgium.

O’Sullivan followed that up with a 4-3 win over Jack Lisowski in the Scottish Open after coming from 3-2 down and won the match with a break of 82, though lost out in the next stage to Martin O’Donnell 4-3 in a scrappy encounter.

And his most recent success came against Paul Davison in a 3-1 victory in the Haikou World Open in China in late December.

But his chance of making the televised stages was dashed by a 5-1 loss to Alfie Burden in the next round.

And he also missed out on an appearance in the main draw of the UK Championship last month, after losing his opening qualifier 6-1 to China’s Chen Zhe.

“Even though it was only a small event it was a great feeling to get my first win against Gilbert,” O’Sullivan added.

“I had been close several times before that, but it is just such a relief to get that first victory out of the way.”