O'Sullivan withdrew from the Open for health reasons and world champion Luca had the perfect chance to fight for world number one
On September 21, Beijing time, the official website of World Snooker WST announced that Rocket O'Sullivan, who just won the Shanghai Masters, withdrew from the upcoming 2023 Snooker British Open due to health reasons.
The main stage of the 2023 British Open is about to start on the 25th of this month, and O'Sullivan's postponed qualifying opponent is Jimmy Robertson. After O'Sullivan withdrew, his place was replaced by former professional Steven Hallworth.
Teacher Huo's wave of operations can also be regarded as strange. Having just won the 220,000 pound grand prize of the Shanghai Masters, Teacher Huo is not short of money again. However, the Shanghai Masters is an invitational tournament and prize money does not count towards the rankings. The Rockets' results in the ranking tournament last season were very average, ranking only 14th in the single-season ranking prize money. Fire Teacher this season, if he can't make a difference in the ranking match, the ranking will drop significantly; What's more, falling out of the top 16 is not impossible.
What's more, current world number one O'Sullivan is only £5,000 ahead of second-placed Luca Brecel in the provisional ranking during the British Open. This means that Luca only needs to reach the round of 32 (£5,000; According to the ranking rules, the prize money is the same, and the results of the most recent ranking tournament are compared one by one, and the most recent one is ranked first), Luca will become the 12th place in the world in history. And Mark Allen, who is ranked third, also has a chance, but the difficulty is very high. Allen and the Rockets are £45,500 apart, and they don't reach the final (runner-up £45,000) and need to win the title.
The current list of 11 world No. 1s (data as of after the 2023 World Championships):
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