Edinburgh snooker star pulls off upset in Scottish Open and reveals why he's happy to avoid Ronnie O'Sullivan

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He’s playing the tournament in his own backyard and there’s a reason he’s about Ronnie O’Sullivan dropping out after causing a Scottish Open upset.

Dean Young says it was sweet revenge on home soil after progressing in the Scottish Open at Meadowbank - and avoiding a great of the game isn’t a bad thing either.

The snooker star from the capital was the underdog against the 26th-ranked player in the world, but he managed to overcome a 72-place gap to win 4-2 in the round of 64 clash. A match-up with Xing Zihao now awaits on Wednesday afternoon as he looks to go deeper in the competition.

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It comes three years after entering the pro tour via Q school, which he had to dip back into last year after dropping off the tour, immediately gaining his card back. Against a player who beat him 5-1 last time they met at the German Masters, Young admits it was nice to get his own win back.

He said to the Edinburgh Evening News: “Really happy. Really good win. Played him a few times before and I've never got the better of him, so to do that in front of my own crowd, yeah brilliant, great win for me.

“I've played him I think twice, maybe three times. I've never really got close, so I was like, a little bit of revenge would be sweet. I've just, I've been putting hours in. I've had a couple of wins this season, a good one to get here, so I thought why not just go out and try my best.

“It's just seeing each game at a time. I believe in myself, so you never know, just one game at a time and yeah, we'll see how it goes.”

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There could have been a match-up with Ronnie O’Sullivan on the cards for Young, with the snooker icon on his side of the draw and due to face Xing Zihao in the previous round. He dropped out of the tournament at short notice but Young admits that wasn’t the type of player he’d like to have faced at this stage.

A rising standard means that Young isn’t taking anyone for granted after the pain of missing out on last year’s event so close to home. He added: “The standard's so high, everybody's quality.

“But yeah, I would have expected to play Ronnie. Obviously hearing the news that he pulled out, I don't mind. I'll just treat my next opponent the exact same and hopefully we'll see what happens.

“I’m wanting points to stay on the tour, I don't want to be running into Ronnie! It's about a 15-minute drive home. I never qualified last year, but my friend Darren Hill qualified, he was staying at mine, so I came to the venue with him. Just having missed out, I was like, ‘please, make sure you qualify next year.’ I've qualified and I've got a win under my belt now, so yeah, I'm confident.”

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