Ronnie O’Sullivan has been handed a first-round match with Liam Graham at the Welsh Open less than a fortnight after the Scottish teenager criticised the world No. 1 for withdrawing at the last minute from their scheduled Scottish Open meeting.
The 19-year-old Graham felt O’Sullivan’s forfeit was “not surprising” when he opted out of last week’s Scottish Open at Meadowbank Sports Centre in Edinburgh.
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“At the end of the day I want to play the best players in the world and I was really looking forward to it. I had a lot of people coming to watch and it’s really disappointing for them.
“It’s not surprising given the things he does. I found out when I got to the venue this morning. I didn’t have much prior warning, I think he pulled out very late.
“I would have stayed at home and all the people who have travelled to watch me would have come another day as well.”
O’Sullivan refuted the claims made by Graham that he had purposely opted out of the tournament at the last minute.
“I was not quite ready to come and play here at the Scottish Open which is really disappointing as I love this tournament, love this city and love this venue.”
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A qualifying stage will take place between January 25-27 in Barnsley with Stephen Hendry facing Ross Muir, Jimmy White taking on Dominic Dale and Stuart Bingham confronting Marco Fu.
Scottish Open champion Gary Wilson meets Mark Davis, while Stephen Maguire must overcome Si Jiahui to reach the last 64.
Welsh Open draw (matches held over to final venue)
- Riley Powell v Liam Davies
- Robert Milkins v Jamie Jones
- Jack Lisowski v Oliver Brown
- Mark Williams v John Astley
- Neil Robertson v Jackson Page
- Mark Allen v Cao Yupeng
- Ding Junhui v Jenson Kendrick
- John Higgins v Mohamed Ibrahim
- Alexander Ursenbacher v Powell or Davies
- Judd Trump v Liam Highfield
- Ronnie O’Sullivan v Liam Graham
- Zhang Anda v Ahmed Aly Elsayed
- Ali Carter v Elliot Slessor
- Mark Selby v Yuan Sijun
- Shaun Murphy v David Grace
- Kyren Wilson v Ashley Carty
- Barry Hawkins v He Guoqiang
- Luca Brecel v Jiang Jun
