“RONNIE O’SULLIVAN will have to change his birthday plans after being knocked out of the first round of the UK Championship. The Rocket turns 50 on Friday and had he progressed through this tournament, he would have had a table for two booked for his special day…a snooker table that is. Sign up for the”, — write: www.thesun.co.uk
The Rocket turns 50 on Friday and had he progressed through this tournament, he would have had a table for two booked for his special day…a snooker table that is.
Thank you!
Ronnie O’Sullivan was dumped out of the UK Championship by Zhou YuelongCredit: PA December 5 is the day the four quarter-finals are scheduled to take place.
Yet O’Sullivan is now at a loss about what to do – whether to stay in York for TV work, go back to see his parents in London or fly back to Dubai to be with his new wife.
Decisions, decisions, decisions – all because he was shocked 6-4 by Zhou Yuelong, the 29th best player in the world, in the opening hurdle of the Triple Crown event at the Barbican.
The line-up for the quarter-finals on Friday will not involve the record eight-time UK Champion as English Open finalist Zhou achieved one of the best results of his career.
This is the first time that Yuelong, 27, has beaten O’Sullivan, having suffered seven successive defeats.
It is the second year in a row that O’Sullivan has gone out in his first contest at this North Yorkshire theatre.
It is a major blow for the 1,000 fans who had arrived to see O’Sullivan in his first appearance on UK soil since he lost to Zhao Xintong in the semi-finals of the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible.
O’Sullivan, using a new cue for this season, hit a 123 break in frame four and played well in patches.
But he got caught out by Zhou, who pinched two frames on the final black and also hit a magnificent 125 in the eighth frame.
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Zhou defied the nerves he was feeling to sink the final green, brown, blue, pink and yellow to win from 58-46 down in the 10th frame, with O’Sullivan kicking himself for missing the key yellow.
World No.5 O’Sullivan – who recently had a haircut and bothered to shave, signs that he is in a decent mental head space – reaches his important milestone later this week, the final member of the Class of 92 trio to do so.
But he cannot have his cake and eat it this time given his exit from one of the biggest competitions on the calendar.
It came after a bizarre opening to the game when O’Sullivan arrived at the table without his cue.
After being announced by MC Rob Walker and walking down the stairs at the York Theatre, he was empty handed.
But it turned out O’Sullivan had requested for the cue to be laid down next to his chair before proceedings began.
Hazel Irvine, the long-standing and respected BBC snooker host, told any eagle-eyed viewers: “A reminder that Ronnie has not forgotten his cue.
“He actually sent it to the stage a little bit earlier before that walk-on.”