This Saturday saw the start of the last 64 of the UK Championship 2015, at the Barbican, in York.
Ronnie is the defending champion … but has declined to enter the event. He is present though, as a pundit, in the Eurosport Studio, along with Jimmy White and Colin Murray. They will cover every session from this afternoon on to the tournament conclusion on Sunday, December 6.
During their day 1 preview, Ronnie expected Stuart Bingham and John Higgins to win their matches, but believed that Mark Williams could be vulnerable mainly because he doesn’t score heavily enough.
The three have worked together last season already and we can expect a lot of banter as well as expert analysis.
They already kicked it off on twitter:
Colin tweeted:
@ronnieo147 settling in nicely in @EurosportUKTV studio this afternoon. I’m feeding him grapes 🍇 #eurosportsnooker
@ronnieo147 @EurosportUKTV footprints everywhere! 🙂
Colin, Ronnie and Jimmy briefly discussed the afternoon results. Overall they got their predictions right: Mark Williams did lose to Tom Ford in the decider despite both players scoring heavily; Mark blamed the cushions for ruining his positional game, just like Ronnie did in early rounds last season here in York as well.
Ronnie, Jimmy and Colin then gave their preview regarding the evening matches, with focus on two young promising players, Zhou Yuelong and Kyren Wilson.
You can watch all the punditry again here:
Kyren Wilson duly won his match over veteran Mike Dunn, but Zhou Yuelong got beat soundly by an impressive Shaun Murphy. There were two surprise results as well: Li Hang defeated Ricky Walden by 6-5 and Joe Perry was beaten comprehensively by Robbie Williams. Li Hang has quietly turned into a very dangerous player over the last couple of seasons, so that one isn’t a real shock, but Perry was seen by many as a possible winner in this tournament. After the match, Perry criticised his opponent for his style of play: you can read (and listen to) his reaction in this piece by Andy Caroll .
Ronnie O'Sullivan 