RONNIE DOMINANT IN WAR
30 years after becoming the youngest winner of a ranking event at the UK Championship, Ronnie O'Sullivan has won that very same tournament for an eight time this year - a 22nd Triple Crown win that keeps him safely in the top of the World Ranking at 48 years-old and on his 32nd season as a professional.
Ronnie has now won the two richest tournaments played this season, but in contrast to that, "medical reasons" have been a cause for some controversial late withdrawals.
The most recent one was from the Scottish Open. Ronnie says he didn't withdraw "last minute", like WST made it look. But the fact is that, the way he's been picking and choosing his events this season, after he won the UK it looked certain that he would skip Scotland. And whatever his medical condition is, it does seem odd that it hasn't made him pull out of Triple Crown tournaments or the big money Chinese events - doesn't seem like a random thing and that's something that should be addressed by WST, no doubt.
But it should be addressed on a serious note, amd that's just not the way they've been running their business lately.
My three latest blogs have been about snooker politics, and recently I wrote about a conflict of interest in having the WST owned and controlled by Matchroom. And recently the "Macau Drama" provoked actions from WST that were widely seen as "childlike behaviour" by players, media, fans and everyone involved with the sport.
These late withdrawals are a problem, but as an organization you should look into that and take reasonable actions within the rules. There are sponsors, broadcasters and even fans who are disappointed when O'Sullian pulls out of an event, so the excuse must be acceptable.
But even if he's wrong, O'Sullivan is just a player and will act as he likes. That way, absolutely nothing justifies WST putting Ronnie O'Sullivan in the World Open qualifying draw to be held in Barnsley.
In every flat ranking tournament like this we get either the top 16 players having their first-round match held over to the main event, or five selected players: the defending champion, the world champion, the world number one, and the top two ranked players of the host country.
However, for the World Open (to be held in China next year), the selected seeded players to play their first-round match held over are the defending champion (Trump), the world champion (Brecel), the top two ranked Chinese players (Ding and Zhang), plus Sanderson Lam, Matthew Selt and Jordan Brown who play wildcards in their first round match.
There's been no explanation as to why O'Sullivan, as world number one, hasn't also had his match held over to the main venue, like it's been the case for every tournament since "held over" matches became a thing.
To me it's clearly a dig at Ronnie for his recent withdrawals and rants at WST's management. We know there's a lot of money for him in China just for turning up, and we also know he hates playing in qualifying events. But he's earned the right to skip those and, even if he's wrong in the way he's handled his calendar this season, he's entitled to his own decisions. Therefore, it's extremely bothering that the organization is making one childish decision after another.
What's your view on that? Let me know!
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