Ronnie O’Sullivan walks out of World Open match just minutes into first frame

Ronnie O’Sullivan abruptly walked out of his World Open match just minutes after it started.

The Rocket beat Ross Muir 5-1 on the opening day of the tournament in China.

However, there was a bizarre moment during the opening frame where a logo sewn onto his waistcoat was frustrating him.

As he was going to line up the black, he went into position multiple times before fiddling with the patch.

He eventually told the referee he could not continue, before walking out of the hall to try and fix the issue.

The 50-year-old, who recently dropped out of the world’s top 10, shook his head as he walked off, leaving Muir sitting in his chair for a few minutes before O’Sullivan returned.

The Rocket eventually returned to pot the black, winning the 98-27 as he got over his issues with his logo.

O’Sullivan went on to clinch the match 5-1 and bizarrely gets a bye straight through to the third round.

That’s because second round opponent Ishpreet Singh Chadha has withdrawn.

O’Sullivan’s verdict

“I’ve been practising here. I got here a week early just to do some practice on my own,” O’Sullivan told the World Snooker Tour in Yushan.

“I’ve been working really hard on my game. I know I haven’t played a lot of tournaments, but I’ve been working really hard on my game.”

“It has been in such a bad place. It’s not like I haven’t been playing, it’s not like I’ve got my feet up while everyone is playing.

“I thought I’ve really got to try and attack this. I’ve got one last throw of the dice, really. The last three years have been pretty awful confidence wise.

“I’m just trying to work on that and just see if I can get back to delivering the cue freely. If I can’t, then I don’t know how long I can carry on playing.

“I’m hopeful one day, and then I’m really unhopeful the next day. I’ve made a little breakthrough and then it goes, and it’s so frustrating.

“But I’ll commit to two years, try and work on it so I can prolong my career basically. Cueing the way I was cueing, there was just going to be no longevity.

“I’ve been working as hard as I’ve ever done – it’s just not been on TV. It’s been behind closed doors.

“I’m just really attacking it now, rather than just hoping something changes. I’m really breaking it down and trying to re-coach myself.

“I started using a certain method a few years ago, and it just really didn’t work for me. It has left me in probably the worst place I’ve ever been in snooker.

“I was saying to a friend the other day that if I could manage to get out of this, I’d say it would be my biggest achievement in snooker.

“If I could come out of this at the other end and feel how I did six or seven years ago, that would trump any tournaments I’ve won.

“I’m under no illusions of how difficult it will be, but I’m not going to retire or go out because something that I tried didn’t work for me.

“I’m going to try to get back to my natural instinct of playing and re-coach myself with the help of other people. I can’t do it on my own.”

O’Sullivan also recently announced that he will renew rivalry with Stephen Hendry in April at the inaugural John Virgo Trophy.