Neil Robertson and Ryan Day join Ronnie O'Sullivan in withdrawing from the 2025 Wuhan Open

The World Snooker Tour announced on Wednesday that O’Sullivan had pulled out due to medical reasons, with the news about Robertson and Day not going to the Far East published on Thursday, although no reason was given for their withdrawals.

The £700,000 world ranking event takes place at the Optics Valley Gymnasium of Huazhong University of Science and Technology between August 24-30. Visit our tournament information centre here for details on the draw, results, schedule, prize money, and how to watch.

O’Sullivan was due to play Allan Taylor in round one on Sunday. He will be replaced by 2025 UK Q School order of merit leader Umut Dikme from Germany.

This is one of eight first round matches that have been held over to the main venue in Wuhan. Round one games featuring the defending champion Xiao Guodong, reigning World Champion Zhao Xintong, and world number one Judd Trump will also be played on Sunday, along with the four fixtures involving the local amateur wildcards.

All the other round one matches in this year’s Wuhan Open were actually completed in Leicester, England, back in June. For a summary of what happened at the Mattioli Arena, read our round-up here.

Both Robertson and Day had already won their round one/qualifying match in Leicester several weeks ago. Robertson whitewashed rookie Leone Crowley 5-0, while Day dispatched Jonas Luz 5-1.

Due to their withdrawals coming at the round two/last 64 stage, their scheduled opponents - Reanne Evans and Jack Lisowski, respectively - both receive byes and advance to the last 32.

The withdrawals of both O’Sullivan and Robertson come just days after their epic meeting at the 2025 Saudi Arabia Masters final in Jeddah. In a dramatic contest that went all the way to a deciding frame, Robertson - who led the match 7-2 - won 10-9 to collect the title, trophy and £500,000 winner’s pot.

The half-a-million pound payout represented double Robertson’s previous highest single payday in the sport, and elevated him to number three in the world rankings. O’Sullivan pocketed £200,000 as he went up to world number four.

It has been a very busy few weeks for Australian Robertson who was in China for the Shanghai Masters, then Hong Kong to help launch a new academy alongside Trump, and then the Middle East for snooker’s ‘fourth major’.

It seems likely that Robertson would like a bit of time off at home in the UK instead of another Asian expedition.

With £500,000 already in the bank for this season’s ranking total, the 43-year-old is now guaranteed to qualify for all three of this season’s Players Series events, and he was already in the Champion of Champions for his title triumph at the World Grand Prix in March.

The career Triple Crown winner can now be selective in which tournaments he elects to play in this season; this is in contrast to the last couple of terms. At the start of this calendar year, Robertson was ranked outside the world’s top 16.

Despite this trio of withdrawals, a star-studded cast is still set to feature in Wuhan. On top of the names mentioned above, world number two Kyren Wilson, China’s original snooker superstar Ding Junhui, four-time World Champion Mark Selby, Masters Champion Shaun Murphy, and ‘Class of 92’ members Mark Williams and John Higgins are all on the schedule.