December 13th 2023.
World No.1 Ronnie O'Sullivan has been labelled 'disrespectful' after he pulled out of the Scottish Open at the last minute. His opponent Liam Graham was understandably frustrated, having taken time off work to watch the recently crowned UK champion in action, while fans who had paid to see the match were also disappointed.
However, despite the ongoing feud between the two, Shaun Murphy has surprisingly come to the defence of O'Sullivan. On the latest episode of the OneFourSeven Snooker Podcast, he expressed confusion over the narrative surrounding the world No.1 and believes he has done nothing wrong by the letter of the law from World Snooker Tour's point of view.
Murphy insists O'Sullivan is well within his rights to withdraw from any tournament he wishes and that it is a different issue altogether when it comes to the reasons he gives. He said: "No one is obliged to play in anything. Obviously he and I don’t see eye to eye on many things – everyone knows that – but he’s not obliged to play in anything. He’s well within the rules to withdraw from any event that he wants to. The reasons he gives? That’s a different subject."
The 2005 world champion concluded by saying that he is curious to hear the opinion of the snooker fraternity and that the narrative surrounding O'Sullivan's withdrawal is misleading. It remains to be seen what kind of reaction Ronnie O'Sullivan will get when he returns to the tour.
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