Mark King brands Ronnie O'Sullivan a 'tool' over numpty rant

Updated 23/11/2017 at 19:56 GMT

Mark King lost his crown as Northern Ireland Open champion after suffering a 4-1 defeat to Yan Bingtao in the last 32 but he went out with a bang by branding five-times world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan "a tool".

Mark King is out of the Northern Ireland Open.

Image credit: Eurosport

World number 21 King bowed out the event he won a year ago to 17-year-old Chinese prodigy Bingtao, who has lost only one frame in progressing to the last 16.

He admits he is far from happy with his treatment after being dethroned on Thursday morning at the 128-man event at Belfast Waterfront.

He also had stern words for his fellow Essex player Ronnie O'Sullivan over describing players at the lower reaches of the game as "numpties" in his recent Eurosport manifesto video.

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O'Sullivan has said it was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but King was having none of it as he failed to see the funny side.

There has also been rivalry between the pair, and King was unhappy that O'Sullivan is given preferential treatment.

“It has been an amazing year as champion of this tournament," said King, who made a 75 in winning the fourth frame after Bingtao pieced together 79 and 51 to move 3-0 clear.

“If I had one grudge to bear I feel like normally defending champion goes on first game, and I was on second at about 10pm.

“Then in the next game I was on at 10am, with no TV, then again today at 10am with no TV.

And you just feel like if you’re not Ronnie, you are brushed aside. He is the greatest player we have ever had, but you don’t see him on roll-on, roll-off.

“He has a scheduled match time, seems to play at times when he wants to play and asks to play on certain days.

“We are all in the same boat, all trying to earn a living – and all that numpty c*** is just that, c***.

He was a numpty once and it shows disrespect for your peers. I have respect for all tour players, even the ones that can’t make a 50 break. No-one is a numpty, and he is a tool if you ask me.

“It’s a bit sad when your reign ends, but the experience of defending my first ranking title was great overall.”

2010 world champion Neil Robertson suffered a blow in his bid to qualify for the Masters in January as he suffered a 4-3 to Robert Milkins his last-32 match at the Belfast Waterfront.

Robertson is 17th in the standings and probably needs to go further than Ryan Day at next week's UK Championship to avoid missing the Masters for the first time in a decade.

Robertson made runs of 104, 53 and 76 as he led Milkins 2-1 then trailed 3-2 before forcing a final-frame decider.

But Milkins kept his composure superbly to dominate the seventh frame with a break of 54 enough to progress.