Disappointing but unsurprising … here is the announcement
O’Sullivan Withdraws From International Championship Qualifiers
Ronnie O’Sullivan has pulled out of this month’s International Championship for medical reasons.
O’Sullivan was due to play Louis Heathcote at the qualifying round in Leicester on Thursday September 17th. He has been replaced in the draw by Joshua Thomond.
The qualifying round runs from September 17-19, followed by the main event in Nanjing, China from October 31 to November 7.
If I understand correctly, Ronnie can only spend a limited number of days per year in the UK, for tax and/or immigration-related reasons. It seems like he chooses to save those days for the UK Championship and World Championship, rather than “waste” them on qualifiers for lesser events.
It’s pretty likely that he would have played in the International Championship if it weren’t for having to be in the UK for the qualifier.
Somehow for Trump it’s not a problem. Oh well, I have zero sympathy for tax avoiding rich people.
It depends on the situation. Sportspersons usually get nothing when they retire and, often, they have to retire much younger than people with a more “regular” job. Often, as well, focusing on their sport from a young age means they have acquired no other “skills”, no academic degrees, no craft they learned. They may earn a lot for a few years, and be taxed very heavily, then nothing for many more years and get no financial support whatsoever.
Just, withdrawing for “medical reason” is really so annoying. So, to use the same wording as Csilla: The question is just why he does enter these tournaments?
To keep his options open I suppose. What else?
Maybe. Maybe his “team” does it for him. Maybe it’s something else. I heard entry time slots can vary a lot too.
I’ll be honest that is an absolute disgrace.
If he can’t even be bothered to play a qualifying game for a major tournament with a chance to climb up in the rankings, he can’t even call himself a professional anymore. That attitude stinks, it is utterly indefensible.
At this stage I will clap and cheer if he falls outside the top 16.
Unsurprising, because he obviously follows the trend of the last 2 years, but surprising, because at least China he liked. But mainly irritating:I really wonder how he still has any sponsorship and how the sponsors put up with all this. The question is why he doesn’t just retire?
Why should he retire? He is still in the top 16. He doesn’t want to play in qualifiers, and frankly there shouldn’t be qualifiers played in the UK for overseas events. Either play the full tournament at the venue in one go – that would be the right choice IMO – or hold the qualifiers just before the event, near the main event venue. And that’s how it should be for all UK based events too.
I agree , Monique! As long as he’s in the top 16 he gets promoted to later stagesstill fairly often, and that is what he likes.
Regarding the sponsors, Csilla. I commented here that I was honestly very, very surprised to see him play in a China morning session. So while he certainly is popular with the fans, there might have taken place a shift amongst sponsors and regarding appearance money and all that.
I guess he was surprised to see Saudi events getting cancelled, but I did not read about him commentin gon that.
You are right about the qualifying part in general, but it’s an issue for the whole WST and I don’t really know what is the reason for it: not enough room, time to have the whole tournament in one venue. But every player is in the same boat, so it’s a little irritating that one wants different rules apply to him. If that’s enough not to play an important tournament, that’s behaving like a diva and not as a professional. I guess I suggested retirement, because I find this behaviour embarrassing and it makes me feel bad, although obviously I shouldn’t care. I don’t think he’ll be in the top 16 for long either.