Seven-time World Championship winner Ronnie O'Sullivan announced his withdrawal from the 25th Snooker Champions League after the fifth match, marking his fourth withdrawal this season. In the previous Champions League, O'Sullivan had a similar move when he withdrew mid-tournament after playing the third group match, which led to controversy as his opponents could not receive the winning points.
On the first day of the competition, O'Sullivan suffered an opening defeat, winning only one out of four matches. According to the schedule, O'Sullivan had only two matches on the second day, against Milkins and Carter. Facing Milkins, who was at the bottom of the rankings, O'Sullivan was reversed in the first game, but he managed to score a single-stroke 90 points in just five minutes in the third game, although he failed to pot the pink and black balls to complete a century break, he still took the lead with a 2-1 match point.
In the fourth game, O'Sullivan failed to maintain his good form, and Milkins made up for it with a score of 62-6; in the decisive game, O'Sullivan unexpectedly encountered a miss after getting on the long table, followed by a violent shot and a任性一杆, eventually losing 2-3 to Milkins again. In the next two games, O'Sullivan's accuracy became a problem, scoring only 6 and 9 points.
The turning point of the game came in the fourth game when O'Sullivan, trailing 0-47, wanted to hit the pink ball but made a simple mistake and immediately smashed his cue stick in anger, then quickly apologized, and the referee showed understanding. After missing this shot, O'Sullivan's mentality changed, and it can be understood that he only scored 15 points in the next two games.
In addition to losing control of his emotions on the court, O'Sullivan was also emotionally unstable off the court. According to foreign media reports, after withdrawing from the Champions League, O'Sullivan directly put his cue stick in the trash can, but one of his friends picked it up. On the first day of the game against Jones, O'Sullivan won the only victory in this Champions League, but after a poor shot, he kicked the table and said his efforts were "useless".
O'Sullivan was in hot form during the Macau exhibition match, achieving a record of five wins. Unexpectedly, his first match in 25 years ended in defeat, and he even exploded with his "little emotions". According to the plan, O'Sullivan's next match is the Masters starting on the 12th, where he will defend his title against Higgins. This Champions League training was very poor, and we hope O'Sullivan can quickly regain his form.