Yesterday WST announced more withdrawals at the 2022 Gibraltar Open
Updated Gibraltar Draw
Several players have withdrawn from this week’s BetVictor Gibraltar Open, and have been replaced in the draw by the next available players on the Q School 2021 Order of Merit.
Liam Highfield is replaced by Dylan Mitchell (Match 5)
Dean Young is replaced by Joshua Cooper (Match 22)
Sean Harvey is replaced by Hamim Hussain (Match 29)
Billy Castle is replaced by Phil O’Kane (Match 13)
Shaun Murphy is replaced by Lee Stephens (Match 12)
Kurt Maflin is replaced by Jamie Curtis-Barrett (Match 37)
Zhang Jiankang is replaced by Stuart Watson (Match 39)Click here for the updated draw
Ronnie O’Sullivan, John Higgins, Neil Robertson, Kyren Wilson, Mark Allen and defending champion Judd Trump are among the star names competing in the tournament which runs from March 24 to 26 at the Europa Sports Complex.
and today there were even more withdrawals, including some of the “replacements”:
- Jamie Jones W/O – Phil O’Kane
- Matthew Stevens W/O – Hamim Hussain
- Fraser Patrick – Steven Hallworth W/O
- Chang Bingyu – Sanderson Lam W/O
And there might be a lot more to come if this post by Soheil Vahedi on Facebook is anything to go by:
So apparently the windy weather brings a double issue. Some “last minute” players seem to be unable to travel, and others are detained at the Malaga Airport because of passport/visa issues.
What a mess!
One player who did arrive in Gibraltar is Neil Robertson! He has a lot of time on his hands because there are NO PRACTICE TABLES. As a result he apparently decided to have a vegan burger at a terrace but even that proved to be more complicated than expected. Voracious pigeons decided that the burger and crips were to there liking and Neil had to retreat abandonning the crisps…
What’s coming next ???
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Seems like this post is now “stuck” at the top of the site…
Corrected now. Thank you for telling me.
It’s quite normal for the European PCT events to have no practice tables, so it shouldn’t be a surprise. It’s also quite normal to have some travelling disruption in the Gibraltar Open. That is unfortunate, as it’s an important tournament for players who are on some kind of raking threshold: top-16, Tour Championship or relegation, plus also some bonus or other. It’s also normal for many amateurs to be competing in this, as it used to be an ‘open’ event.
It is a little surprising that Soheil Vahedi has such problems. I’ve been in the situation of having diverted flights, and usually there is some official who can sign it off. OK, maybe it’s more difficult with an Iranian passport and more difficult in covid times, but they have to do something with the people who arrive.
But it does seem remarkable that they can find so many top-up players to go there at such short notice, when they regular players can’t make it.
Some of the top-ups have withdrawed as well. Soheil later put another post saying that they were about 30 players in the same situation. WST has been informed and they are waiting in a hotel.