Peter Ebdon plays down qualification chances

Peter Ebdon took the unorthodox step of releasing a statement this week, playing down his chances of winning a match.

Ebdon is due to marry this weekend and then play a qualifying match for the Roewe Shanghai Masters next week, and says he will be inadequately prepared.

The 39-year-old’s warning about how he may potentially play is understood to have been made to provide bookmakers with advance notice about his prospects of qualifying for September’s tournament.

Snooker chiefs are determined for the sport to be free from suspicion, and by releasing his statement Ebdon has made it clear he will go into his final qualifying round match with low expectations.

Police have questioned Ebdon’s fellow professionals Stephen Maguire, Jamie Burnett and Stephen Lee in investigations into alleged corruption in the sport, and all three have denied wrongdoing.

In April, the Scottish pair of Maguire and Burnett were referred, along with three other men, to the prosecutor fiscal over betting patterns during their UK Championship match in 2008.

World number one John Higgins is also the subject of a World Snooker investigation into News of the World allegations that he agreed to fix the outcome of four frames in matches to be played later this year.

Higgins firmly denies the allegations and has vowed to clear his name.

Ebdon said: “I would like to make it known that I consider that I will not be in a position to play to the best of my ability in my Shanghai Masters qualifying match next week.

“This is down to personal circumstances, including the fact that I am getting re-married in Hungary this weekend. Since playing in a recent tournament in Thailand I have not been able to practise, and by the time the qualifiers come around I will not have played for 10 days or more.”

Ebdon fell out of the world’s top 16 at the end of last season and is now ranked 18th.

He goes straight into the final round of the qualifying competition which takes place from Monday to Thursday next week.