World No. 1 Ronnie O’Sullivan announced on Monday morning that he would not be competing in the Scottish Open. This occurred only a few hours before his Edinburgh Meadowbank Sports Centre first-round matchup with Liam Graham. With O’Sullivan out, Graham will now get a bye into the second round. The main event is scheduled to end on December 17.
For health concerns, Ronnie O’Sullivan has withdrawn from the Scottish Open.
The world No. 1 was scheduled to face Liam Graham on Monday afternoon; however, the Scot will now advance to round two with a bye.
In a statement, the WST confirmed the news, saying: “Due to health concerns, Ronnie O’Sullivan has withdrawn from the BetVictor Scottish Open.
“The world number one was set to face Liam Graham in the opening round, but Graham will now receive a bye.”
After defeating John Higgins and Mark Williams in the 1998 and 2000 championship matches, respectively, O’Sullivan has won the tournament twice.
In 2020, he finished second as well, falling to Mark Selby 9–5.
After defeating Ding Junhui 10-7 in the championship match, the seven-time world champion recently won the UK Championship.
This was thirty years after his first victory at the age of seventeen, making him the youngest and oldest champion of this competition, respectively.
O’Sullivan, though, has experienced difficulties off the table and withdrew from the November Champion of Champions competition.
After competing in the International Championship in China, he was “mentally feeling a bit drained and stressed”.
He went into greater detail about the reasons for that withdrawal in an interview with Eurosport.
“A lot of it is prevention rather than cure,” he stated. I don’t want to find myself thinking, “I overdid it again,” at that point.
“It’s not like I’m strewn all over the floor or am having a lot of trouble pulling out.” I’m only aware that attending that competition will put me in a bad situation and prevent me from enjoying the game of snooker.”My main goal is to enjoy playing snooker, and I believe that in order to do so, I need to be able to train for tournaments and get enough sleep in between them.
