Ronnie O’Sullivan disappointed many of his Scottish fans by pulling out of the BetVictor Scottish Open which started at Edinburgh’s Meadowbank Stadium on Monday.
The seven-time world champion was due to play Glasgow’s teenage prospect, Liam Graham, the current holder of the ESBA European under-21 snooker title, at lunchtime but informed the organisers that he was not coming north because of “medical reasons”. The 19-year-old Scot received a bye.
The reasons were not specified but the withdrawal of the world No 1 comes only a week after he won the UK Championship by beating Chinese player Ding Junhui 10-7 in the final in The Barbican in York.
O’Sullivan (pictured left in a match against John Higgins) also missed the Champion of Champions event in November saying he was feeling “drained and stressed”.
The snooker world now waits to see if the man from the Midlands makes a return to the table in early January for the Masters which is scheduled to run from January 7 to 14.
Meanwhile, current holder Gary Wilson edged Elliott Slessor 4-3 in their first round match. Both men are from Tyneside.
Jimmy Robertson beat Amann Iqbal 4-2 also in the opening session and Mark Selby, the world No 5, won by the same score over Sean O’Sullivan while Ding Junhui, ranked No 11 in the world and the most successful Asian player in the history of the sport, beat David Grace 4-0.
Wishaw-based Higgins, who has won 31 ranking titles, placing him third in the all-time ranking list behind O’Sullivan and fellow-Scot Stephen Hendry, is due on table in the evening session on Monday from 8pm.
OTHER SCORES: Mark Williams 3, Sam Craigie 4; Barry Hawkins 3, Pang Junxu 4; Ali Carter 4, Long Zehuang 3; Luca Brecel 4, Iulian Boiko 0; Kyren Wilson 4, Mostafa Dorgham 2; Robert Milkins 0, Mark Davis 4; Judd Trump 4, Sydney Wilson 0; Jack Lisowski 4, Mohamed Ibrahim 0; Hossein Vafaei 3, Daniel Wells 4; Jack Borwick 1, Ishpreet Singh Chadha 4; Sean Murphy 1, Liu Hongyu.
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