Three snooker fill days in York brought the first round of this years UK Championship to a close and with little in the way of shock results,one man and precisely his ankle,has dominated the headlines.
When early in the week Ronnie 'Sullivan tweeted a picture of his swollen ankle I think most of us probably presumed this was a minor knock that, although an inconvenience,would probably be ok for his first round match on Thursday.
This however doesn't appear to be the case and after beating Daniel Wells 6-2 a clearly uncomfortable O'Sullivan told the media that the ankle is more seriously injured than it first appeared and that the pain is such that if it has not healed sufficiently for his next match on Sunday he will withdraw from the tournament.
If this is what ultimately does happen what a real pity for Ronnie who has seldom appeared to come into this championship with such enthusiasm,it would however open the door for some of his main rivals to get their name on the roll of honour.
Such was the way the draw was structured here that all those games big stars reached the second round without much fuss,indeed the only top 16 player to exit was Ali Carter,who is continuing his comeback to the game after his battle with cancer and eventually went down here 6-5 to Zhang Anda
Things kick off again tomorrow with the arrival of the BBC cameras and we have a couple of eye catching matches to look forward to in Round Two among them Ding Junhui v Jimmy White and on Sunday Luca Brecel v Mark Allen.
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