Neil Robertson took a hug decision..

For the first time since 2005, Neil Robertson will close the year without taking home a significant award. In addition, the former world champion’s position at the World Grand Prix next month will be lost after a 6-2 loss to a motivated Zhou Yuelong in the UK Championship’s opening round at the York Barbican. Watch live snooker action, including the UK Championship, on eurosport.com, the Eurosport app, and discovery+.

Neil Robertson’s terrible season began in the UK Championship, and he will miss the World Grand Prix next month.
The world No. 6 lost 6-2 to Zhou Yuelong in the first round of the York Barbican tournament, his most recent early departure from a ranking event. He will now take a month off to “reset” before returning home to Australia.

For the first time since 2005, Robertson has not taken home a major title this year after red-hot Zhou made breaks of 136, 134, 99, 80, 74, 67, and 50 on Tuesday to set up a Thursday afternoon final-16 matchup with John Higgins.

Robertson, who had leveled the score at 2-2 with a brilliant 135 of his own, ruefully observed on Eurosport, “I need people to not play like that, which they’ve been doing all season.”
“It is really annoying. He said, “I’d love to hit them over the head with my cue, but I’d lose the match.”
That’s what players playing that way have been up against me the entire season. I believe it is a praise that players are aware that they must perform at that level.I haven’t lost many games lately despite my bad skill. It was necessary for players to perform very well, and this was the case once more.

There have been instances where my rivals haven’t actually engaged in any matches. Although I haven’t been doing anything wrong, all of my opponents have been playing really well.
“So to all my opponents, can you stop doing that please.”

Upon his comeback, the 2010 world champion will need to defend his global top-16 status after suffering a string of defeats in the ranking events he has participated in.
Robertson has not advanced past the last 64 of six ranking tournaments since withdrawing from the Championship League at the beginning of the season. He has lost in the first round of the European Masters, the English Open, and the UK last-32 stage thrice.
Although it does not affect his ranking, his finest performance of the season saw him advance to the invitational Shanghai Masters semi-finals in September, when he was defeated 10-7 by world champion Luca Brecel.
Now, he’ll take a month off to “reset” before making a comeback in January for the Masters.

It’s unfortunate that I will be missing the next few events as this is my penultimate tournament before the Masters,” he said.

However, as an Australian playing abroad, you have to make these choices in order to prioritize your family for once.
“It will be great to spend almost a month at home,” I believe. It will be my first opportunity to visit my brothers in four and a half years! Going home and starting again is something I’m extremely excited about.”
Robertson is a pitiful 86th on the one-year list and will plummet to 29th in the globe in the tentative end-of-season rankings.

He opted out of the Scottish Open (11–17 December) in Edinburgh, which he won in 2017, and the Shoot Out (6–9 December), which he hasn’t participated since 2011. This means he won’t be able to qualify for the World Grand Prix in Leicester (15–21 January) via the one-year list.
The German Masters qualifiers are scheduled for next month (18–22 December), however it’s unclear if the top 16 players will be seeded to begin at the Tempodrom in Berlin, where the finals will be held from January 29 to February 4.
Robertson will make a comeback for the Masters at Alexandra Palace from January 7–14, but he also runs the danger of not making it into the Tour and Players Championship (top 16 on the one-year list).