Thursday, March 26, 2009

Parrott withdraws from China Open

John Parrott has been forced to pull out of next week's China Open, the penultimate ranking event of the season, for medical reasons.

The former world champion is suffering from persistent back and neck problems and will not travel to Beijing.

Parrott had come through two qualifying rounds, but his wildcard opponent, China's Cao Xinlong, receives a bye into Round One to face Shaun Murphy.

The event is the last for players to hit form before the World Championship.

Stephen Hendry is one player desperate to string some wins together before the season finale at The Crucible starting on 18 April.

The seven-time world champion has only won four matches in ranking events all season, three of them in Bahrain where he reached the semi-finals.

But the Scot has dropped to 12 in the rankings after losing in the first rounds of the UK Championship and the Welsh Open, and could drop out of the elite top 16 if that sequence continues over the final two events.

Hendry will face either Northern Irishman Joe Swail, or the winner of the Liang Wenbo-Robert Milkins qualifier, in his first-round match.

Another former world champion, Peter Ebdon, is also in danger of losing his place among the elite after slipping to 17th in the provisional rankings.

Ebdon faces either emerging Bristol youngster Judd Trump or one of seven Chinese wildcards, Tang Jun, in his opening match.

Graeme Dott, who won in China two years ago, also needs a strong end to the season to have any chance of retaining his place among the elite, having dropped to 36 in the provisional list.

Defending champion Stephen Maguire, who beat Shaun Murphy 10-9 in last year's final, opens his campaign against Dave Harold while world number one Ronnie O'Sullivan starts against Irishman Fergal O'Brien.

O'Sullivan could face Chinese star Ding Junhui in the second round, with a potential quarter-final against John Higgins or Marco Fu.

China Open draw:

First round:

Stephen Maguire (Sco) v Dave Harold (Eng)
Peter Ebdon (Eng) v Tang/Trump
Joe Perry (Eng) v Cao K/Walden
Stephen Hendry (Sco) v Swail/Liang/Milkins
Ali Carter (Eng) v Nigel Bond (Eng)
Mark Allen (NI) v Cao Y/Pettman
Graeme Dott (Sco) v Yu/Lawler
Mark Selby (Eng) v Stephen Lee (Eng)
Shaun Murphy (Eng) v Cao Xinlong (Chn)
Neil Robertson (Aus) v Gerard Greene (NI)
Mark King (Eng) v Mark Williams (Wal)
Ryan Day (Wal) v Jamie Cope (Eng)
John Higgins (Sco) v Anthony Hamilton (Eng)
Marco Fu (HK) v Tian/Gray
Ding Junhui (Chn) v Xiao G/Holt
Ronnie O'Sullivan (Eng) v Fergal O'Brien (Ire)

Wildcard round:

Tang Jun (Chn) v Judd Trump (Eng)
Cao Kaisheng (Chn) v Ricky Walden (Eng)
Cao Yupeng (Chn) v Stuart Pettman (Eng)
Yu Delu (Chn) v Rod Lawler (Eng)
Cao Xinlong (Chn) w/o John Parrott (Eng) * Parrott withdrew
Tian Pengfei (Chn) v David Gray (Eng)
Xiao Guodong (Chn) v Michael Holt (Eng)
Liang/Milkins v Joe Swail (NI)

Qualifying round:

Liang Wenbo (Chn) v Robert Milkins (Eng)

(From Website : http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/snooker/7963996.stm)