Jimmy White confident 'jagged' Ronnie O’Sullivan will be ‘up and ready to try to win the UK Championship’

Jimmy White is confident Ronnie O’Sullivan will be ‘up and ready to try and win the UK Championship’ after his shock defeat to David Grace. O’Sullivan was 2-0 up against Grace in the second round of the Northern Ireland Open, but lost the match 4-3 as he played some erratic shots. Ad The seven-time world champion revealed to Eurosport he is writing a new book and that snooker is “not the main priority” of his life at the moment.

Northern Ireland OpenSelby delivers ‘hammer blow’ to Miah with classy clearanceAN HOUR AGO “He says he’s got other things going on, he gave us a little taster but didn’t really tell us what it was,” White said in the Eurosport studio. “It looked to me that in his game, from when he came back from Hong Kong he didn’t really play much since then, so he may have been a bit tired, a bit jagged. “But make no mistake, he will be up and ready to try to win the UK Championship.” The UK Championship, which takes place from November 12 to November 20, is the next ranking tournament on the calendar and it will be live on Eurosport and discovery+.

As for Grace, he will play Tian Pengfei in the next round on Thursday after one of the biggest wins of his career. ‘It’s weird’ – Why O’Sullivan is ‘really surprised’ about snooker’s young players Robertson cruises into last 16 at Northern Ireland Open for first time Alan McManus was glad to see the 37-year-old finally be rewarded for the effort he puts in off the table. “His first five years as a pro he had scant reward for a lot of the hard graft,” said McManus.