Ssb - o'sullivan out of australian open

[ferret]

Even by Ronnie O'Sullivan's standards, his withdrawal from the Australian Goldfields Open is bizarre.

O'Sullivan actually flew to Bangkok for the connecting flight to Australia but refused to board the plane, citing back and neck problems.

If he had not intended to play from the off it is fair to assume he wouldn't have gone to Thailand.

However, snooker fans can hardly be blamed for treating his reasoning with scepticism because this is far from the first time this has happened for an event outside the UK.

Dominic Dale will now play Steve Mifsud, who will be excused the wildcard round.

Why? Surely Dale should receive a bye in the usual manner.


More...

[DeanH]

Dominic Dale will now play Steve Mifsud, who will be excused the wildcard round.

Why? Surely Dale should receive a bye in the usual manner.

I was wondering why Dominic Dale did not get the bye? Why Selt instead? Strange.
Unles they did not want Dominic Dale getting to many byes in one year

[wildJONESEYE]

I was wondering why Dominic Dale did not get the bye? Why Selt instead? Strange.
Unles they did not want Dominic Dale getting to many byes in one year

Selt doesent recieve a Bye hes playing Higgins in the last 32 with Dale playing Mifsud.....id rather be Dale than Selt lol

[lk8]

I'm confused too... shouldn't Dominic Dale gets a bye and nothing else is changed?

so the situation now is like Matthew Selt's got a bye, which is good for him...

Steve Mifsud also gets a bye, goes straight to last 32, the DOUBLE bonus for him is he doesn't have to play against John Higgins anymore, not for a while...

so the worst disadvantaged player is Dale because he didn't get a bye when he should've (well if you can call it that, it's not his problem OSullivan pulled out )... Where he would've had a day off to relax and practice, but rather have to play Steve Mifsud in the last 32 now, not that he will lose, but you never know with the short format... Bonus for the Aussie viewers is that Steve Mifsud gets to go live on TV now...

[Forman]

Is this going to be screened live in australia? or just back in the UK

[BikiniKill]

That's too bad, I was looking forward to seeing him.