Stephen Hendry rips Ronnie O'Sullivan after disappointing British Open exit

Stephen Hendry didn't mince words as he led the rule over Ronnie O'Sullivan's performance in his British Open first-round loss to Alexander Ursenbacher on Monday night. The Rocket were kicked out of the competition after a lackluster performance in which they allowed Ursenbacher to take the game by the scruff of the neck and secure a major upset at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes.

O'Sullivan missed three single reds as he played left-handed in a scrappy performance by his own high standards and will be forced to regret his mistakes as he watches the rest of the British Open from the sidelines over the course of of the next few days. Hendry slammed the 46-year-old after his surprise first-round exit, with the Scot insisting it was the worst he's seen the reigning world champion play in several years.

"That's probably the worst I've seen Ronnie O'Sullivan play in a few years, he sucked tonight," Hendry said.

"He just never started. He was hitting too hard, played three shots with his left hand that missed from wide range. Worst performance I've seen from Ronnie in a long time.

"I'm sure it's not the fact that he's playing someone he's lost to twice, I'm sure that's not the reason, but for some reason he just wasn't there tonight.

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"You have to give full credit to Alexander because he was gorgeous, he took it from Ronnie from the start. He was very, very composed from the start in the first frame, he was hugely impressive.< /p>

"He looked very comfortable. There aren't many players who look as comfortable playing against Ronnie O'Sullivan."

Monday's result saw Ursenbacher pick up his third win over O'Sullivan in four attempts to send the British icon packing his bags with an impressive performance at Marshall Arena. He previously beat The Rocket at the Welsh Open in 2019 before winning the UK Championship a year later and is now hoping to follow up his latest win with a win over Joe O'Connor in the second round clash. Tuesday's round at the British Open.

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Ursenbacher revealed after his latest triumph over O'Sullivan that he was happy to have delivered the goods in front of his mother, who was watching him play live from the stands for the very first time.

"I'm glad my mum is here," said the Swiss hopeful. "She gave me a lot of strength and I told myself that I was not going to give in, no matter what, I'm just going to go for it.

"It's like any other win, but he's a seven-time world champion and the greatest player to ever catch a cue, so it's special. But I try not to do it all a dish, because I prefer to be him."

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