Much to the surprise of nobody, it was revealed on Monday that Ronnie O’Sullivan had withdrawn from the 2024 Scottish Open.
The Rocket had been scheduled to face Xing Zihao in the opening round of the venue stages on Tuesday at the Meadowbank Sports Centre.
But it probably would have been more of a shock if he had actually turned up to compete, such has been the regularity of his no-shows from these kinds of tournaments in recent times.
It’s the fourth event this season that O’Sullivan has entered but subsequently withdrawn from, tending to officially pull out on the eve of the week’s action itself.
At the time of writing, no official reason has been provided for his absence on this occasion, although in the past he has cited medical reasons.
It marks the second campaign in succession that he has withdrawn from the Scottish Open at the last minute.
Four of the top 32 seeds, who were expected to enter the fray following the qualifiers in October, have now withdrawn from the calendar year’s concluding ranking event.
World number one Judd Trump, Champion of Champions Mark Williams, and World Championship semi-finalist David Gilbert had all previously pulled out ahead of the 2024 edition.
It isn’t a great look for the Home Nations event, which is probably already regarded as the weakest of the four tournaments on the series.
Because there was already a preliminary phase staged to whittled down the lower-ranked contenders, the opportunity for top-up replacements in the draw has long since passed.
It’s good news, however, for qualifiers Xing, Ishpreet Singh Chadha, David Lilley, and Robbie Williams.
All four cueists benefit from the walkover results and advance directly into the last 32, where they are guaranteed £5,400 in prize money.
The 2024 Scottish Open commenced on Monday, meanwhile, with two-time defending champion Gary Wilson’s reign ending with defeat to Long Zehuang.
It was a startling decision to put the reigning champion’s opening match on during the morning session -not for the first time the World Snooker Tour has treated the supposed lower-profile winners with disrespect.
Several marquee names did make it through their initial hurdle, though.
Home favourite John Higgins defeated Ian Burns 4-2, Mark Allen overcame He Guoqiang 4-1, and Ali Carter ousted Graeme Dott 4-2.
There were victories elsewhere for Zhang Anda, Barry Hawkins, Chris Wakelin, Jak Jones, Stuart Bingham, and Ryan Day.
Among the others to qualify for the next round were 2022 Scottish Open runner-up Joe O’Connor, reigning Wuhan Open winner Xiao Guodong, and this term’s English Open finalist Wu Yize.
The round of 64 will continue on Tuesday with world champion Kyren Wilson joining the action in addition to former Scottish Open winners Neil Robertson and Luca Brecel.
Monday, December 9th
Results
Zhang Anda 4-3 Stan Moody
Long Zehuang 4-2 Gary Wilson
Joe O’Connor 4-1 Lyu Haotian
John Higgins 4-2 Ian Burns
Ali Carter 4-2 Graeme Dott
Ryan Day 4-1 Anthony McGill
Chris Wakelin 4-0 Scott Donaldson
Barry Hawkins 4-2 Alexander Ursenbacher
Wu Yize 4-1 Farakh Ajaib
Xiao Guodong 4-1 Xu Si
Mark Allen 4-1 He Guoqiang
Jak Jones 4-1 Jamie Jones
Stuart Bingham 4-0 Jimmy Robertson
Tuesday, December 10th
Order of Play
10am UTC
Si Jiahui vs Ma Hailong
Ding Junhui vs Mark Davis
1pm UTC
Noppon Saengkham vs Ricky Walden
Jack Lisowski vs Jordan Brown
Robert Milkins vs Jackson Page
Kyren Wilson vs David Grace
Following 1pm games
Mark Selby vs Stuart Carrington
Pang Junxu vs Dean Young
Luca Brecel vs Julien Leclercq
Stephen Maguire vs Matthew Selt
7pm UTC
Hossein Vafaei vs Lei Peifan
Shaun Murphy vs Daniel Wells
Zhou Yuelong vs Yuan Sijun
Following 7pm games
Neil Robertson vs Fan Zhengyi
Tom Ford vs Antoni Kowalski
Click here to view up-to-date results
(snooker.org)
Featured photo credit: WST
Stuart Bingham has won his last two matches with Jimmy Robertson 6-0 and 4-0.