Ronnie O’Sullivan withdraws from British Open just hours before his opening match against Manasawin Phetmalaikul

Ronnie O’Sullivan ended his own hopes of winning the British Open for the first time since 1994 by withdrawing from the competition just hours before his first-round match.The Rocket was due to face Manasawin Phetmalaikul at the Centaur Arena in Cheltenham but he has now been replaced by Lewis Ullah.O’Sullivan spoke recently about his ‘inevitable decline’ in performance and admitted that his era of winning snooker’s top titles could be ‘finished’.The seven-time world champion, who has won more Triple Crowns (23) and ranking titles (41) than anyone in history, said after his defeat at the Saudi Arabia Masters: “I just have to accept it’s finished for me really. I’ve been on a steady decline for five years and it’s just getting worse and worse.“I’ve got to try and hang on and slow the inevitable decline that happens to all sports people. It’s OK against certain players at a certain level, but at the level I’m used to playing at and kind of having a bit of a stranglehold on the game, it’s just not good enough. I have to accept that.“I’m happy that it’s happening at this age and not at 31, that’s the only positive. It’s not easy to accept because you still want to play, you still want to compete.“I don’t want to do what [Stephen] Hendry done, or [Steve] Davis done or what Jimmy [White]’s done which is probably played on well past where they were capable of doing any damage in the game.”O’Sullivan subsequently crashed out in the opening round of last week’s English Open against China’s He Guoqiang so there will no doubt be questions raised about his confidence levels in wake of his British Open withdrawal.The 64-player tournament, which is the fifth ranking event of the season and runs from September 23-29, has a random draw format and was won 12 months ago by Mark Williams.More to follow…Prize moneyWinner: £100,000Runner-up: £45,000Semi-final: £20,000Quarter-final: £12,000Last 16: £9,000Last 32: £6,000Last 64: £3,000Highest break: £5,000Total: £502,000