And today, as usual in Asia, it’s red carpet ceremony in Guangzhou. Only two top 16 players are missing it: Ronnie who didn’t enter and Kyren Wilson who withdrew.
Kyren came on social media to explain the reasons for his withdrawal. His young son Finley was taken in medical care, very unwell, a few days ago and although he is getting much better, Kyren feels that his family needs him more right now than the fans in China do. I’m sure that this is the right decision and that the Chinese fans will se much more of him in the coming years.
Now here are (a lot of) pictures shared mainly on weibo:
It’s fair to say that Marco Fu’s two little girls are stealing the show there!
Luca Brecel is the defending champion but, unless I’m mistaken, is nowhere in those pictures. That’s a bit surprising…
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Yes, a bit different from the opening ceremony we’ll be seeing in Crawley! I’ve got an open ticket, but I don’t expect any red carpets!
This tournament is quite important for the Chinese players, who haven’t really started well this season. The draw is tough for most of them, and it could fall to Ding again to carry the flag through the 3rd round. This week there is a national holiday (“the Autumn Moon Festival”), so a little more of a spotlight (and hopefully more spectators). Unfortunately two of the Cantonese speakers, Marco Fu and Zhang Anda, face each other. The third, Xu Si, will be relishing the (maybe unique) chance to play in front of his family, as was evident in the emotional clearance he made to win on the final black in the qualifier.
In Ronnie-related news, he said on Twitter that he’s going to be spending 3 months living in Thailand with Buddhist monks, presumably during the snooker season. When someone asked if he was serious, he said that he was. (But who knows).
I could see him possibly taking the 3 months off between the Masters and the World Championships…
Yes I read that too, but would still be surprised if he does it. Living like a monk isn’t really something I cant associate with Ronnie if you get what I mean 😉
I’m amazed that after all these years there are still people that take everything he says seriously.
Yes, Ronnie seems to like to say lots of things that he either doesn’t mean at the time or does mean at the time but then changes his mind about.
In this particular case, the idea of him living with monks in Thailand seems a bit less far-fetched than it might otherwise because of his interest in Thailand/Buddhism/mindfulness and because he’s clearly not planning to play a full snooker schedule anyway. But (as you suggest) perhaps Ronnie doesn’t realize what “living like a monk” would require him to give up for those 3 months…
It depends on what kind of monastery. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are some which contain a snooker table and some pretty decent sparring partners!