O'Sullivan and Wilson suffer shock defeats at UK Championship

Eight-time winner Ronnie O'Sullivan was knocked out of the UK Championship with a shock 6-4 first-round defeat by China's Zhou Yuelong at York Barbican - and he could choose to skip the Masters in January.

O'Sullivan, who turns 50 on Friday, was playing his first tournament in the UK since a 17-7 loss to Zhao Xintong in the semi-finals of the World Championship at the Crucible in Sheffield in May.

Despite making rapid and entertaining breaks of 71, 123, 62, 94, 65 and 56 against Zhou, O'Sullivan lost four frames on the black, including the seventh when he had led 64-0, only to lose it 65-64.

Zhou, 29th in the world rankings, was never behind and an excellent clearance of 125 was the highlight of his performance.

O'Sullivan led in frame 10 and looked poised to force a decider but lost position when going from yellow to green and that enabled Zhou to clinch a superb victory.

There was another surprise as world number two Kyren Wilson, who won the 2024 World Championship, suffered a 6-4 loss to Elliot Slessor.

Two-time UK champion Mark Selby was in superb form, though, as he secured a 6-2 victory over Chinese qualifier Lei Peifan.

Selby made breaks of 51, 82, 75 and 133 to set up a last-16 tie against Zhou.

Regarded by many as snooker's greatest ever player, Englishman O'Sullivan now lives in Dubai with his family and is selective about the events he plays in.

He had beaten 27-year-old Zhou in each of their previous seven meetings, but this result continued a great competition for China, with seven players from the country reaching the last 16.

Immediately after the match, O'Sullivan was asked if he would be playing in next month's Masters in London. That event starts on 11 January, with the draw taking place this Sunday.

O'Sullivan, who continues to play a number of events in Asia and the Middle East, said: "I don't know, I've not made any decision - I will have to wait and see. I will have a nice Christmas and see how I feel in January.

"I still get disappointed if I lose if I play well and I probably wasn't the better player on the day. I did my best. Life is quite good, I'm just trying to enjoy working.

"I've enjoyed playing since the start of the season and feel I'm hitting the ball all right."

O'Sullivan's birthday coincides with this tournament's quarter-finals. He says he will still watch the snooker on TV, as well as "going for a run and eating some nice food".

Three-time world champion Mark Williams feels the only way O'Sullivan will get back to winning ways is by playing more often.

Williams, who like O'Sullivan and John Higgins is part of snooker's fabled Class of 92, said on BBC Two: "The reason he is not winning as many tournaments as he has is he is not playing enough. For him to get back to winning consistently he has to play more, but when you are 50 it is hard to play in all the tournaments.

"His motivation is just winning. He loves to win the big events, and even though he has said he doesn't want to overtake Stephen Hendry's record at the World Championship [both Hendry and O'Sullivan are on seven titles], I think that's his main aim."

Six-time UK and world champion Steve Davis reached the quarter-finals of the World Championship aged 52 in 2010.

He agrees O'Sullivan cannot expect to be successful if he plays a part-time tour schedule.

Speaking on BBC Four, Davis said: "It is going to be problematic going forward for Ronnie O'Sullivan if he does not commit to the whole circuit.

"He has been playing the game so long, so it's his choice how many tournaments he plays a year. But the standard is better now and it's going to be tough for him if he doesn't fully commit, so he's at a bit of a crossroads.

"He still puts in great performances, but the problem is there are so many other players putting in fantastic performances as well."

If O'Sullivan does not feature at the Masters, he may not play competitively in Britain again until either the Tour Championship in Manchester at the end of March or the World Championship in Sheffield in April.

Selby, who was on the other table while O'Sullivan was playing on Tuesday, felt the UK Championship would lose something from his exit.

"For me, it's always great when Ronnie is in a tournament - it has that extra vibe," said Selby. "Even just being in the same session, with the crowd you get that atmosphere which you don't get with any other player."

For Zhou, beating O'Sullivan was a special moment after he had been inspired to play snooker because of 'The Rocket'.

"For my career it's a big win for me because of the opponent, Ronnie," said Zhou. "Before I had lost many times and every time I had played him I was so nervous.

"As a child I was watching him all the time on TV and I have so much respect for Ronnie. He is the king of the Barbican. To beat him here, I'm so proud of myself."

Wilson lost 6-4 to Slessor in the evening session, while Barry Hawkins, who lost to Judd Trump in the final in York last year, won by the same margin against 50-year-old David Lilley.

Both Wilson and Slessor were critical of the playing conditions.

"I'm just disappointed, the table was awful, it was unplayable conditions, the cue was awful," said Wilson, who has been unable to find a cue to suit him. "I mentally gave up as soon as I missed the pink in the first frame but tried my hardest."

The cue Wilson used when winning the world title 19 months ago was damaged in what he called a "freak accident" when being refurbished at the start of the 2025-26 season.

"That was the tightest table I've ever played on, bar none - I felt I could miss anything and everything," added Wilson.

Hawkins got a hard-fought win over Lilley, who was playing his first match on a TV table at a Triple Crown event.

"It was a very difficult game, there was a two or three-frame spell mid-match when it started looking like being a good standard, but then it got scrappy," Hawkins said.

"It's nice to have that match under my belt and still be in the tournament. If I play like that against Elliot he will probably beat me."