Aaron Hill followed up his career-best Wuhan Open run by earning a place in the final stages of the BetVictor Northern Ireland Open with a 4-1 defeat of David Lilley. …
Last week in China, Hill reached the quarter-finals of a ranking event for the first time before a narrow 5-4 defeat against Wu Yize. And the 21-year-old Irishman can look forward to another trip to the televised stages as he’ll be at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast for the second event in the BetVictor Home Nations series. The tournament runs from October 22-29.
Breaks of 92 and 53 helped Hill to sink Lilley and he’ll now meet Fan Zhengyi in the last 64.
Marco Fu compiled breaks of 133 and 104 in a 4-2 defeat of Jamie Jones, while BetVictor English Open quarter-finalist Matthew Selt saw off Andy Lee 4-1.
Former World Champion Graeme Dott top scored with 98 in a 4-0 win over Oliver Lines, while Joe Perry wrapped up a 4-2 win over Ishpreet Singh Chadha with a run of 102.
There were no major upsets yesterday. Marco Fu beating Jamie Jones by 4-2 was maybe unexpected, but then Marco used to be a top player and I’m glad to see him regain some form after all the health issues he suffered. Other than that Ian Burns beating Pang Junxu was a minor surprise.
Ronnie O’Sullivan has pulled out of the BetVictor Northern Ireland Open for medical reasons.
O’Sullivan was due to meet Ahmed Aly Elsayed during the evening session of the opening day of the tournament in Belfast, Sunday October 22nd.
He has been replaced by the highest available player from the Q School ranking list, Rory McLeod.
This injury is obviously a major concern. It’s not going away. Ronnie will almost certainly favour the biggest and most lucrative tournaments, knowing that playing in everything will be extremely difficult, if not physically impossible. It’s not looking good …
Meanwhile the top players are far from happy with the way WST enforces their contract
Ronnie O’Sullivan is unhappy with the promotion of snooker in the UK (Picture: Getty Images)
Ronnie O’Sullivan says he could skip the World Championship this season, while Mark Allen has suggested top players boycott an event as the dispute between World Snooker Tour and some of the sport’s biggest stars rumbles on.
Conflict has arisen between players and the powers that be over big-money exhibitions in China that are being staged while ranking events are running elsewhere.
This week some top players are playing in Shanghai while the Northern Ireland Open qualifiers are staged in Sheffield, while there was due to be an exhibition in Macau next week while the main stages of the Northern Ireland Open are played in Belfast.
Five players – John Higgins, Mark Selby, Luca Brecel, Ali Carter and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh – were due to play in Macau and withdrew their entries from Northern Ireland, but were warned by WST that playing in the exhibition during the ranking event was in breach of their players contracts and they would face sanctions if they did so.
The exhibition has since been moved to December, but the five players in question had already withdrawn from Belfast, so they will not be playing in anything next week.
O’Sullivan will be in Belfast and is playing in Shanghai this week, but is unhappy with players not being able to act freely, with reports that even during this week’s event a social media blackout has been imposed on those involved.
‘It was almost blackmail to those playing in the Shanghai exhibition – to say you have to do this and do that,’ said O’Sullivan. ‘It would make most players just not want to play there so much. Most players would take these letters as a threat. These days I’d just say, “I’m not playing – what are you going to do about it?” And I will always pay attention to my tennis elbow and my mental health.
‘Get a decent promoter on board in the UK and stop treating the players like a piece of s**t. Do it properly. Or don’t get upset when players complain. WST will try and change the player’s contract and clamp down. But the more they do, the worse they might make it for themselves. They’ll say, “You can’t play in anything, you can’t have a cue in your hand, anywhere, whether it’s streamed or not, if it’s not a tour event.”
‘But I’m doing my own thing, I’ve a lot going on in China – don’t be surprised if I miss the World Championships. What has happened with these exhibitions in Shanghai and Macau and the fallout – it’s going to happen again. The model is f****d up – they’ve got it wrong. It doesn’t support 128 players.’
World Snooker Tour responded to the Rocket, saying they are working with players and promoters of exhibitions to try and make sure all needs are catered for.
A statement read: ‘Last month, Ronnie won £220,000 at the invitational Shanghai Masters we brought back to the calendar. To some extent we’re victims of our own success as we’ve developed a thriving market now creating extra opportunities for players.
‘We understand certain players may want to compete in exhibition events and will continue to discuss this with them in a respectful and constructive manner, as we have done this month in agreeing dates for the Macau event.’
Ronnie O’Sullivan beat Luca Brecel in the final of the Shanghai Masters last month (Picture: Getty Images)
Allen is not involved in Shanghai, nor was he due to play in Macau as Northern Ireland is his home event and he has won the last two editions of the Belfast tournament.
He agrees with O’Sullivan that restrictions on players are too onerous and has called on his fellow elite stars of the game to consider boycotting an event to bring about change.
‘I think the game is in disarray, it’s gone nowhere in recent years,’ Allen told the Irish Mirror. ‘I do not think that anything will change until the players revolt and in my view we need to boycott collectively as top players missing an event, that’s the only way things will ever change.
‘The statements WST have been putting out are amateurish. To say that they’ve treated the players with respect is laughable. There’s a lot of guaranteed money for these exhibitions. Whereas the prize money for the Home Nations in particular has really stagnated. Ultimately if prize money is bigger in events like Belfast then people wouldn’t even consider exhibitions.
Mark Allen feels a boycott of WST tournaments could be needed (Picture: Getty Images)
‘Ronnie’s hit the nail on the head with a lot of the things he’s said. He’s absolutely right. They’re able to hide behind the players’ contract. That doesn’t mean it’s right or it’s fair. I just know if I was one of the players involved then I would have taken a stand because the contract we have is far too restrictive.
‘If you don’t sign the contract you can’t play snooker, so ultimately you have to sign it because I want to play tournaments, compete and earn a living for my family but that doesn’t mean I’m happy with a lot of things in the contract.’
World Snooker Tour have hit back at Allen’s claims and say they will be taking action against him for ‘false and defamatory’ remarks.
A statement read: ‘We have offered Mark three meetings in the past three months, two of which face to face, and he has refused to engage. We had finally arranged to meet with him in the next week but he has clearly decided that he would not want to do so and has made these public comments instead. We strongly refute these allegations which are false and defamatory and will be taking necessary action.’
All this is bad for snooker.
I don’t take Ronnie’s statement about missing the World Championship too seriously. It’s not the first time he comes up with that, and he might mean it on the moment, but when the time for the World comes, he’s always changed his mind, even in 2013, when he sat the whole season out. BUT, there is clear discontent amongst the top players, especially the older ones. The players are essentially self-employed. Yes, there is the 20000 pounds guaranteed, but if they earn more than that, it doesn’t come in addition to their earnings, and of course it’s not counting towards their ranking. As self-employed persons, they should be free to choose where and when they want to play, taking the best offers. It’s up to WST to make their events attractive enough to keep the top players – the ones who actually put bums on seats – interested in their events. Over recent years their shareholders have seen their shares increase significantly, whilst the prize money has remained rather stagnant. So … I don’t see how Mark Allen’s remarks are defamatory and false.
Barry Hearn, and his family, have always been big fans of the free enterprise and the capitalist model.
Well then … they should live by his own principles and allow players to go for the best offer. This would force WST to increase the quality of their products to stay competitive, and it’s not all about the money, it’s about the quality of the venues, the fans’ and players’ global experience. By that I mean top quality snooker of course, but also quality catering, comfortable seating in the arena, “relaxing spaces” for fans at the venue, attention to accessibility, considering possible activities and attractions in the close area, comfortable players’ room, players changing facilities and showers … Make the snooker trip a global positive experience for the fans and the players. Players need to feel valued in order to deliver their best snooker.
Antrim’s Jordan Brown ensured that he’ll be among the line-up for next week’s BetVictor Northern Ireland Open in Belfast as he saw off Stuart Carrington 4-2 in the qualifying round.
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Brown goes through to face either Neil Robertson or Wu Yize in the last 64 of the world ranking event at the Waterfront Hall, which runs from October 22 to 29. The former BetVictor Welsh Open champion made a top break of 69 in a hard-fought win over Carrington.
Irishman Ken Doherty earned his spot with a fine 4-3 victory over Liam Highfield. From 3-2 down, former World Champion Doherty, age 54, fired breaks of 135 and 65 to win the last two frames.
Stephen Hendry and Matthew Stevens went head to head in a repeat of their UK Championship final of 20 years ago, and again it was Stevens who came out on top as he recovered a 2-1 deficit to win 4-2.
Jamie Clarke won the deciding frame on the final black to beat Alfie Davis 4-3, while Dean Young top scored with 83 in a 4-2 win over Mohamed Ibrahim.
There was a very good 4-0 win by Mark Davis over Scott Donaldson. Mark opened the match with two big breaks, a 100 and a 86. Not bad for a 51 years old veteran. Scott Donaldson AST was close to 40 seconds/shot. That’s very slow, unusually slow. Scott has been open about healths issues that have hindered him as a player. Maybe yesterday was a bad day for him.
Julien Leclercq beat Adam Duffy by 4-1, from 1-0 down. Julien played well … and fast! His AST was a mere 16 seconds per shot.
Stephen Hendry started the match well, he lead 2-0. This was, by far, the best I have seen him play since his “return”. He should have gone 3-1 really. He was the better player at that stage. The in-off in frame 4 appeared to seriously and durably affect him. He wasn’t the same after that. He looked dispirited and his game disintegrated. Nothing against Matthew Stevens but that was sad to see … again.
Anthony Hamilton scored only 18 points in a 4-0 defeat to Chris Wakelin. Chris was again in high scoring mode … he had breaks of 51, 87 and 95 en route to victory. He’s a different player snce winning the Shoot Out.
Gary Wilson will face close friend Elliot Slessor in the opening round when he begins the defence of his BetVictor Scottish Open title in Edinburgh in December.
The main event will run from December 11 to 17 at the Meadowbank Sports Centre in Edinburgh. …
Wilson won his first ranking title in Edinburgh last year when he beat Joe O’Connor in the final. The Wallsend cueman will be up against practice partner Slessor in a Tyneside tussle in the first round this time.
World Champion Luca Brecel has been drawn against Ukranian ace Iulian Boiko, while world number one Ronnie O’Sullivan will face Glaswegian tour rookie Liam Graham. Scotland’s all-time legend John Higgins will meet Oliver Brown. Matches involving the top 16 seeds and the two Scottish wild cards will all be played in Edinburgh. Those matches are:
Gary Wilson v Elliot Slessor Hossein Vafaei v Daniel Wells Mark Williams v Sam Craigie Kyren Wilson v Mostafa Dorgham Mark Allen v Jamie Jones Jimmy Robertson v Amaan Iqbal (wild card) Robert Milkins v Mark Davis Jack Lisowski v Mohamed Ibrahim Judd Trump v Sydney Wilson Ronnie O’Sullivan v Liam Graham Barry Hawkins v Pang Junxu Ishpreet Singh Chadha v Jack Borwick (wild card) Ali Carter v Long Zehuang Mark Selby v Sean O’Sullivan Shaun Murphy v Liu Hongyu John Higgins v Oliver Brown Ding Junhui v David Grace Luca Brecel v Julian Boiko
All other first round ties will take place at the qualifying round in Leicester from October 30 to November 2, with winners going through to Edinburgh. Notable matches in the qualifiers include:
Perth’s Scott Donaldson v Ashley Hugill Marco Fu v Jimmy White Ken Doherty v Aaron Hill Baipat Siripaporn v Julien Leclercq Glasgow’s Anthony McGill v Ryan Thomerson
In other news …
Regarding the exhibition in Shanghai …
On day 2, Ronnie beat Jack Lisowski by 4-2 , with a 108 in the process, then lost by 4-0 (or 4-1 according to Weibo) to Willo, who, again according to weibo, scored three centuries in that match. Sinosport on twitter wrote that the third day of the exhibition has been cancelled by the organisers, without further explanation. The posts on weibo are stating that “some” of today’s matches were cancelled, not all of them. Matches scheduled for today are/were Chinese pool matches.
These are the matches that are/may be still on:
14:00 Ronnie O’Sullivan vs. Jack Lisowski (game type: Chinese 8-ball) 19:00 Ding Junhui vs. Judd Trump (game type: Chinese 8-ball)
On twitter …
Hector Nunns, who extensively covered the “conflict” between the players involved in the Macau exhibition and WST/ WSL, and had some sympathy for the players, came yesterday on Twitter (yes, I know, it’s X now) to apologise for some of the things he wrote that were “misinformed” and “untrue”. Now, I know Hector personally and I’m puzzled. It’s not like him to publish things without checking his sources. Everybody makes mistakes, of course, and maybe Hector made a mistake this time… but I’m quite uneasy with the way this whole story panned out. And just now … Hector announced that he will stay away from snooker, adding that this decision is unconnected to the recent incident. It’s a big loss for our sport and … As I said already, I can’t help but feel very uneasy with it all.
Ukraine’s Anton Kazakov scored his first win of the season, beating Long Zehuang 4-1 to qualify for the final stages of the BetVictor Northern Ireland Open.
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Kazakov, age 18, turned pro last year after winning the WSF Junior Championship and found the going tough in his debut season, winning just two matches. But he impressed today in a comfortable victory, his top break 63, and Kazakov is through to the last 64 of a ranking event for the first time. He can look forward to a trip to the Waterfront Hall in Belfast for the world ranking event which gets underway this Sunday.
Germany’s Lukas Kleckers came from 3-1 down to edge out Andrew Pagett 4-3, making breaks of 84 and 101. Jackson Page whitewashed Liam Graham 4-0 while Alfie Burden made a vital colours clearance in the deciding frame to beat Mostafa Dorgham 4-3.
Veteran Dominic Dale rolled back the years in a 4-1 win over Allan Taylor, firing breaks of 57, 55, 136 and 101. Former European Masters champion Fan Zhengyi beat Liu Hongyu 4-2 with a top run of 84. Dylan Emery came from 2-0 down to beat Martin Gould 4-3 in a high quality contest, knocking in breaks of 64, 56, 100 and 53.
I was very happy to see Anton Kazakov win yesterday. The young man clearly works hard and is improving. His situation can’t be easy, he’s from Ukraine. He hasn’t got much success in his first year as a professional, but yesterday he got a good win and I hope that he can build on that success.
Mostafa Dorgham is a very good player, a bit “old school”. He lost yesterday, to the vastly experienced Alfie Burfen, but he showed a lot of quality. Snooker in North Africa is improving and well supported, including women snooker which might surprise many given that Islam is the dominant faith in the area.
The Fan Zhengyi v Liu Hongyu match was a good one as well. No century, but five breaks over 50. Liu made a 63 in the lat frame and it wasn’t enough… Fan won on experience, aided by a superior safety game.
One surprising omission in the above report is the 4-2 win by Zak Surety over Joe O’Connor.
This is a three days exhibition, two matches per day. It started yesterday.
The exhibition is not streamed nor televised – only people at the venue can watch it – and those involved don’t need to play, or chose not to play in the NI Open Qualifiers.
Other than the one above, I found no pictures on Weibo either, so, clearly, they are keeping a low media profile, likely at WST request. These are the results from yesterday: Williams 4-0 Trump, O’Sullivan 4-1 Ding Junhui.
Today Ronnie will play two matches: his opponents will be Jack Lisowski and Mark Williams.
Tomorrow Juss trump will play two matches, against Ding Junhui and Jack Lisowski.
In other news …
According to Weibo, the CBSA has nominated their 4 wildcards for the International Championship: Gong Chenzhi, Bai Yulu, Wang Xinzhong and Wang Xinbo. These are the players that were also chosen for the Wuhan Open.
Judd Trump defeated Ali Carter by 10-7 in the final to win the 2023 Wuhan Open. This is Judd’s 25th ranking title, and the second in the space of two weeks.
Judd Trump was crowned a ranking event winner for the 25th time, as he came from behind to beat Ali Carter 10-7 in the final of the inaugural Wuhan Open.
The victory is all the more remarkable given Trump was battling from 7-3 down to beat Zhang Anda 9-7 in the final of the English Open in Brentwood this time last week, when he claimed a first ranking title for 19 months. He arrived to begin competing in Wuhan two days late and made up for that with two match wins on Wednesday.
It’s the fourth time Trump has won back-to-back titles. He is only the third ever player to win successive tournaments in different countries, following in the footsteps of Stephen Hendry in 1990 and Mark Williams in 2002.
Trump now draws level on 25 with Williams in fifth position on the all-time ranking event winner’s list. Only Ronnie O’Sullivan (39), Hendry (36), John Higgins (31) and Steve Davis (28) have won more.
This week’s tournament marked a first ranking event in Asia since the 2019 World Open in Yushan, a tournament which Trump won. He has now been victorious in three of the last four ranking events to be staged in China. The Ace in the Pack scoops £140,000 for his victory this week, meaning he will move ahead of Mark Allen and become the world number three.
Carter will be disappointed to leave Wuhan without the trophy, but can be pleased to look back on a second final of 2023. He picked up the title at the German Masters back in February, when he defeated Tom Ford in the final in Berlin.
The Captain earns the £63,000 runner-up cheque for his showing this week. His run of 145 in the semi-finals means he shares the high break prize with Aaron Hill, they pocket £2,500 each.
The afternoon session saw Carter battle back from 4-1 down to earn a 5-4 lead heading into tonight. However, it was Trump who hit the ground running this evening to wrest control of this encounter.
Breaks of 116, 56 and 71 saw Trump take a quickfire three on the bounce to move 7-5 ahead. A gutsy contribution of 56 saw Carter close the gap to a single frame, but it was Trump who took the 14th to lead 8-6.
It had looked like Carter would again move within a single frame, but a spurned green to the middle allowed Trump to move to the verge of victory at 9-6. Both players missed final pinks in the next, but it was eventually Carter who deposited it to stay in the contest. However, the 17th frame proved to be the last of the evening with Trump hammering home a spectacular match winning run of 105 to secure the title.
“It was very good. From where I was at the start of the tournament, when I just turned up and hoped for the best. The first day surprised me because I did play pretty well. With that comes a little bit of expectation. The first few rounds did give me a bit of confidence,” said 34-year-old Trump.
“I didn’t give myself much of a chance, but I was so relieved to have won the title last week that this was a bit of a free hit. Nothing really mattered after getting that title. It isn’t until the semi-final stage that you really want to win again. When you get to the final you don’t want to be on the losing end. My record in finals over the last five to ten occasions hasn’t been as good as it was before, so it was nice to get the win.
“My confidence was extremely high at the start of the season. I felt like I was playing really well in practice. I knew the form was there. It was just about having that bit of luck at the right times, which I don’t think was happening. Your confidence then gets knocked and you don’t win. Every season is so different from the one before. This season has been completely different. I’ve got off to an extremely good start and it is probably as well as I’ve ever started a season.
“I think this could be the best venue in China. The way the arena was set up and the amount of people in there made it a very inspiring place to play snooker. Sometimes in the past the arena has been too big and felt empty, but there were a lot of people in there and it spurred me on. I’m definitely someone that likes to play in front of a big crowd.”
Carter said: “I just managed to hang in there today and hoped it would turn. In the end I didn’t have a lot left to be honest. I gave it my best go and it has been a successful week. The ranking points are important and there is lots to look forward to for the rest of the season. I’ve had a good start to the season so far. This is such a big event, to get 63,000 ranking points is almost like a tournament win. Onwards and upwards.”
It was indeed a good tournament. All the players’ reactions I saw on social media were extremely positive. They were very well looked after and felt very welcome. we also saw quite a number of young players, mainly young Chinese players, reaching the latter stages of the event and giving a very good account of themselves.
Wu Yize who only turned 20 yesterday in particular impressed me, as he reached the semi-finals. Losing the match wasn’t the best birthday gift of course but … a nice attention awaited him in the media room after his efforts. Happy belated birthday Wu!
Both semi-finals today saw an experienced English top player face a young Chinese player, and we will have an all English final as Ali Carter and Judd Trump will do battle over a best of 19 frames.
Ali Carter is through to the 12th ranking final of his career, after scoring a straightforward 6-2 defeat of China’s Lyu Haotian in their last four clash this afternoon.
Carter is aiming for a third ranking title on Chinese soil, having previously won the 2010 Shanghai Masters and the 2016 World Open. The five-time ranking event winner ended a seven-year title drought back in February when he won the German Masters in Berlin, beating Tom Ford in the final.
The Captain now faces a final with either last week’s English Open champion Judd Trump or world number 49 Wu Yize. It will be contested over the best of 19 frames, with the winner pocketing £140,000.
Lyu will have to wait longer for his maiden ranking title and second appearance in a final. The 25-year-old has now suffered defeat in four of his five semi-final appearances.
Breaks of 64 and 81 gave Carter the opening frame this afternoon. Lyu levelled, before Carter took the third to regain the lead. A truncated 46-minute fourth went the way of Lyu and they headed in for the mid-session locked level at 2-2.
When play resumed, Carter stepped up a gear and ruthlessly charged for the line. Breaks of 96, 122, 91 and 70 saw him rack up four frames on the bounce to run out a 6-2 victor.
“I felt like I missed a bit of a trick in the first half. In the second half all I could do was take my chances. He gave me four chances and I made four frame winning breaks. I was particularly pleased to win the last frame in one hit. Anyone will tell you that it is never easy to get over the line and reach a big final. To clear up and make it a relatively easy day’s work was pleasing,” said 44-year-old Carter.
“It was a massive occasion for him. You could see that. The pressure he would have been under in a one-table setup and the semi-final of a big ranking event. After beating Ronnie yesterday all eyes would have been on him. He’ll come again and lives to fight another day.
“We all had preconceptions of what Wuhan was like, but we’ve all been pleasantly surprised. It is a massive city. I think the players that stayed at home and decided not to play have missed a trick. I think this is one of the best China events without a doubt.”
Last week’s English Open champion Judd Trump is through to his second consecutive final after storming to a 6-1 win over Wu Yize in the semis at the Wuhan Open.
Trump now faces Ali Carter in the title match, where they will be battling it out to become the inaugural winner of the Wuhan Open. This week marks the first ranking event to take place in Asia since 2019, when Trump took home the title at the World Open.
The Ace in the Pack has battled against the odds to make the final after his exertions in winning the English Open final last Sunday, when he came from 7-3 down to beat Zhang Anda 9-7. Trump arrived in China on Tuesday and had to play two matches on Wednesday to catch up, but so far he has shown no signs of tiredness.
Wu’s week ends in defeat but he can reflect on a tournament which has seen him make the semi-final of a ranking event for the first time in his career. The Chinese cueman, who celebrated his 20th birthday today, defeated Marco Fu, Ryan Day, Stephen Maguire and Aaron Hill on his way to the last four.
There were no birthday signs of cheer for Wu this evening, as Trump ruthlessly established an early lead. The Englishman compiled breaks of 110, 53, 77 and 52 on his way to moving 4-0 up at the mid-session.
After the break Wu did get on the scoreboard thanks to a contribution of 68 in the fifth. However, Trump quickly extinguished any hopes of a fightback with runs of 127 and 63. He delighted the capacity crowd in the final frame by clearing the colours whilst barely moving his feet.
Trump said: “It was nice to play in front of a big crowd in China. It’s been a while and that was probably one of the biggest crowds we will get to play in front of. It was a packed house and I didn’t expect a lot this week, so every game is a bonus. I am just going out, trying to enjoy it and take it all in. The crowds have been good all week, but that was a different arena and it was nice to be involved. I’m happy I got through.
“I know a few players have tried potting the colours without moving their feet in practice. It is a different kettle of fish when it is out in a tournament. It is nice to show what I can do. I know that the crowd enjoy that kind of stuff more than anyone. Whenever I get a chance to play a difficult shot I always do here.
“Ali will probably make it a lot more difficult than some of the younger players have done. I think he is similar to Barry Hawkins, in that you have to earn everything. For me, honestly, I don’t care. I won the tournament last week and I’m in the final. I have zero pressure on me. I can go out, enjoy it and see what happens. I’m just happy to play in front of another amazing crowd.”
Those results were to be expected. Wu and Lyu did very well this week, and, hopefully, the experience gained will help them to reach the next step. Despite Ronnie’s QF defeat, I enjoyed the week and I’m looking forward to the final. Recently Ronnie expressed nostalgia about the way events were run during the “tobacco” years. He felt valued, something he rarely now experiences in ranking events in the UK, but something that players do get in China, with the hospitality, the opening ceremony and banquet, and the enthusiast crowd in attendance. I think that WST would benefit from reintroducing some of that at all their home events. It has a cost, but I believe that it would pay back very quickly in terms of quality and atmosphere. Players spend countless hours in practice, it’s a very solitary sport. They deserve their time in the spotlights, and to be treated well. It would only increase their motivation and ultimately that would translate in a better experience for the paying fans and an increased interest in the “live” WST events. Aspects that needs improving in UK events in general is the quality of the food on offer and the overall comfort.
WST can confirm that the Macau event previously scheduled for 27-29 October will now take place on the 22-24 December with players having received WST permission to enter.
As has been the case throughout, and contrary to reports, WST has dealt with all parties in a respectful and productive manner to reach an outcome which is satisfactory to all parties. As previously stated, due to contractual obligations, the original dates promoted would have been unacceptable and potentially lead to disciplinary action for those players choosing to compete in this event rather than the Northern Ireland Open. As such we are pleased a mutually agreeable solution has been reached to avoid further action.
WST will always work with players to satisfy their needs and we give permission on multiple occasions during the season for these types of events, but on this occasion, we could not do so and raised our concerns with the players and promoter in an appropriate manner which has now led to the postponement.
The players who have withdrawn from the Northern Ireland Open will remain unentered for this event.
All is well then…
Actually, this is probably the best outcome for both the sport and the group of players involved… maybe not so much for Mr Barry Hearn whose outburst now sounds, well, frankly over the top and even a bit ridiculous.
‘Players can give their side, and it almost sounds like they are being bullied,’ Hearn told The Mirror. ‘Every player has the choice whether to play in an event or not, there is no bullying whatsoever. But these players are under contract.
‘You don’t have to enter or play the Northern Ireland Open. But you are not allowed to play in something else.
‘That is 100 per cent legally enforceable. So all of these players going to Macau are just selling their souls and themselves down the river for an extra few quid.
‘I am disappointed in how selfish they have been, and how small-minded. I expect these five will be referred for disciplinary action by WST. And then we’ll see whether they get fined, banned or thrown out.’
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Expelling the reigning World Champion, amongst other top players, over a badly timed exhibition … that sounded rather heavy-handed and not particularly beneficial for the sport and it’s image IMO. But hey! This was Barry Hearn being Barry Hearn!
China’s Lyu Haotian stunned seven-time World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan with a surprise 5-1 victory at the inaugural Wuhan Open, but results elsewhere mean the Rocket is set to remain world number one for now.
O’Sullivan knew if Mark Allen won this week’s event he would be usurped at the summit of the world rankings. However, Allen bowed out this evening against Ali Carter.
It’s the first time in four years that O’Sullivan has lost a match on Chinese soil. His last defeat came at the hands of Dominic Dale in the first round of the 2019 World Open in Yushan. Lyu is now through to the semis of a ranking event for the fifth time in his career, where he will face Carter, but he is still searching for a maiden title.
Lyu took a tight first two frames this evening on the colours, before breaks of 76 and 66 saw him head into the mid-session with a 4-0 advantage. When they returned, a stunning break of 101 from O’Sullivan kept him in contention. However, Lyu took the sixth to run out a 5-1 victor.
Afterwards O’Sullivan admitted that he wasn’t too worried by the prospect of Allen overtaking him at the top of the world rankings, even though the Pistol’s eventual loss did mean he’d stay on top.
“When I first got to number one I couldn’t believe it. When you’ve held it for a few years, you don’t get seduced by victories, World Championships or being the world number one. When I was younger I wanted it. When you get it you become used to it and it is normal. It is a shame really, because you lose that hunger and desire. There is nothing left for me to achieve in snooker. I wish there was something for me to go for. I’ve achieved more than I could ever imagine and more than any other snooker player on the planet,” said 39-time ranking event winner O’Sullivan.
“Lyu played very well. He didn’t miss much, scored well, played good safety and potted some good pressure balls. Credit where it is due. I could have played a bit better, but I didn’t do a lot wrong.”
I think that this is a very honest assessment by Ronnie. He hasn’t got past the QFs in any ranking event since winning his 7th World Title, but he has won three prestigious invitational events. He finds it hard to motivate himself for “normal” events, as he admits in this interview. He’s going to turn 48 in a few weeks, he has won everything, he has nothing to prove, but he still loves playing and competing.
Csilla on facebook branded Ronnie’s display today “disgusting”. I disagree, he wasn’t at his best but as himself stated, he didn’t do a lot wrong either and, believe me, Ronnie tends to be quite harsh on himself. Today, he wasn’t at his best, obviously. He didn’t have much run either except at the start of the only frame he won. But he tried, he came back at the table at the end of the fourth frame, without hope to win it but in an attempt to find some feel of the table and some rhythm. That’s not the attitude of someone who doesn’t care and throws the match.
Here are the scores:
As you can see most frames were close. Not much worked for Ronnie before the MSI. In general, he wasn’t playing as well as he can when on form, and Lyu took advantage, as he should.
Lyu actually played very well. I hope he goes on to win a tournament, this one or another in the future. He was an exceptional junior but his debuts in the main tour were extremely traumatic. He actually quit snooker for a while. He’s a very talented player, with limitations because of his physique: he is frail and rather short. His break-building skills are excellent, and his temperament is good. He’s clever and positive in his approach to the game. I always liked him since I first saw him play close up in Yixing some 11 years ago.
Here are the videos shared by ES on their YouTube channel:
Ronnie’s century ( frame 5)
The last frame …
Ranking wise, this week has improved Ronnie’s position significantly. He will stay number one, because Mark Allen also lost today. In the provisional snooker.org end of season rankings he’s currently 19th, but would climb to 17th if he wins his opening match at the International Championship. Similarly, he’s currently 36th in the race to the World Grand Prix, but a win in the first round of the International Championship would see him climb to 24th, well inside the qualifying bracket. The most important factor here is for him to avoid further injuries.
