Ronnie O’Sullivan won’t be part of the action in Berlin (Image: Getty)
Ronnie O’Sullivan announced he would skip the for the third year in a row last week, citing for his withdrawal. The Rocket was scheduled to play young Welsh star Dylan Emery in the first round.
Yet another competition on the WST calendar is set to be without the seven-time world title-winning after his pulling out of both the Championship League , the latter of which was .
This is now the third year on the bounce that the 49-year-old has turned down the trip to the Tempodrom in Berlin – for a tournament that, this year, takes place from January 27 to February – however, so his withdrawal may not have come as a surprise.
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The WST released a statement last week that read: “Ronnie O’Sullivan has withdrawn from next week’s Machineseeker German Masters due to medical reasons.”
O’Sullivan’s first instance of withdrawing from competitions this term came in Leicester, where, after losing four of his five Championship League group games, The Rocket decided that he would bypass his final group clash with Ali Carter.
Later in January, after being drawn to face fellow icon John Higgins in the Masters first round, O’Sullivan yet again removed himself from contention at Ally Pally and revealed the reasons why to Eurosport.
“Yeah, it was a nightmare decision to make,” O’Sullivan stated. “You know, if you’d have asked me Sunday if was I ready to play, I probably would have been okay to play, but it’s such a massive tournament.
The seven-time world champion has withdrawn from the German Masters (Image: Getty)
“I’ve obviously been on this three-week trip away playing, and I just think I exhausted myself. [There was] a lot of pressure while I was away, and I just think the build-up of all that kind of just got a bit too much, really.
“The right decision was not to play. It’s such a big tournament I felt whoever was going to come in should at least have a couple of days’ notice.”
Now, he won’t be present in Germany either as defending champion Judd Trump returns to defend his £100,000 prize – and he won’t be alone in his withdrawal.
Chinese legend Ding Junhui has also pulled out of the competition, with no reason given for his withdrawal. His opponent, Ross Muir, will now, like O’Sullivan’s scheduled opponent Emery, receive a bye into the last 32.