Ronnie O'Sullivan's rival says one decision led to 'certain defeat' against Zhao Xintong

Neil Robertson says emergency cue surgery was always going to lead to “certain defeat”. Despite sharing the first eight frames of his semi-final against Zhao Xintong, the Rocket wasn’t happy with his equipment, making an unscheduled visit to the cue shop in Sheffield for modifications.

O’Sullivan had the tip and ferrule (the metal sleeve that sits below the tip) changed ahead of Friday’s play, which saw him tumble to a with a The seven-time champion lost all eight frames of the second session, with Zhao seizing on virtually all of his opponent’s many errors.

Understandably, the cue shop wanted to show off its high-profile customer. Chesworth Cues took to to address rumours of O’Sullivan’s visit, posting: “Well, we can't pull the wool over your eyes, yes it was Ronnie's cue. . That late night express retip and changing his ferrule from titanium to brass, was for Ronnie O'Sullivan. Book your retip in today.”

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O’Sullivan’s decision to make such a big change mid-match was met with widespread amazement across even despite his long-running equipment issues, including snapping his cue in a rage at the Championship League in January.

the 2010 world champion, has voiced his opinion on O'Sullivan's drastic move and hopes his rival was warned about of consequences. The Australian, who lost in the first round to Chris Wakelin, posted on X: “I hope who ever changed Ronnie’s tip AND ferrule made it very clear to him that doing so would result in an almost certain heavy defeat before posting anything on social media. Switching from titanium to brass or vice versa mid match unless something was damage is crazy.”

Coming into the tournament, O’Sullivan had not played on the tour since his cue-breaking incident. However, he didn’t pin his heavy defeat to Zhao on his equipment problems.

“I don’t even know if it was the cue, the ferrule or me,” he said after the match. “There were three things. I just don’t even know where the white ball’s going. I’m at a loss, to be honest with you. I don’t even know what to say.

“Sometimes you’ve got to try something different, you know? It didn’t feel great before so I tried to go back to the old brass ferrule.

“I’m not making the cue as an excuse or anything like that but if I hadn’t snapped my old cue maybe I’d have been able to give him a better game but really my performances have not been good enough.”

The other semi-final is set for an exciting finale with Mark Williams leading world No. 1 13-11 ahead of the final session on Saturday.