Mark Allen tells Ronnie O’Sullivan he should have withdrawn from German Masters qualifying

Mark Allen has admitted he regrets not pulling out of the German Masters qualifiers, telling Ronnie O’Sullivan he should have taken a leaf out of his book and withdrawn.

“I’m someone who needs to hit the practice table hard,” he said. “Only having a day or two in between [tournaments] doesn’t really help me.

“I know it’s a great problem to have but I need to be doing those long hours of practice to try and work on a few things.

“I spoke to my circle on the Monday morning [after the UK Championship] and discussed it. I just think it looks bad on the sponsors if you pull out late, that’s the only reason why I played.

“I probably wanted to [withdraw] and with hindsight I should have. I could have taken a leaf out of your [O’Sullivan’s] book and withdrew because I wasn’t mentally ready at all.”

Allen said he didn’t mean it in a disrespectful way, as O’Sullivan agreed with his rival and responded by saying: “When he digs me out I think, ‘He’s actually got that quite right’. So I don’t mind that.

“It would be disrespectful if I thought he was wrong, but he’s right.”

A packed snooker schedule on November has seen the Champion of Champions, UK Championship, German Masters qualifying and Scottish Open all take place in the space of five weeks.

Allen and O’Sullivan agreed that coming from the high of winning a tournament to playing a qualifying match is difficult to deal with.

“It’s hard because you come off the back of such a good week in York – big matches, big venue, big crowd,” said Allen.

“I saw Judd saying yesterday it’s not a lot of fun going to the German qualifiers with two man and your dog watching.

“I just thought being the UK champion it wouldn’t look good if my first act was to pull out of an event.

“The German isn’t my favourite event but you’re nearly forced into playing with the events because of the bonuses on offer.”

O’Sullivan has pulled out of events at late notice several times during his career including at the end of 2018.

He won the UK Championship to surpass Stephen Hendry’s record of 18 Triple Crown titles, before withdrawing from the Scottish Open which began on the next day.

Coincidentally, he played Allen in the final of the UK Championship and it was the Northern Irishman who went on to win the Scottish Open.

“When you’re down in the gutter and the sponsors come out saying, ‘Mark we want to support you’, sometimes you’ve got to look after yourself,” said O’Sullivan.

“If the sponsors say ‘In the hard times we will support you’ you go ‘Ok, great’ but when they don’t you go, ‘Hold on I’m pretty much on my own here.

“I remember when I won it I didn’t actually enjoy winning the UK and when I pulled out [of the next tournament] I really enjoyed it because it takes a few days to sink in.

“It’s not the most inspiring thing to play with no crowd the next day. You go from a beautiful emotion to ‘What am I doing here’.

“Other tournament it’s no problem but the World Championship, UK Championship and the Masters, it never really hits you until two days later.

“Sometimes it’s important to enjoy the wins and bask in it for as long as you can.”

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