Nuptials could harm Ebdon's chances
Wednesday, 28 July 2010 13:03Former world champion Peter Ebdon has taken the unusual step of releasing a statement to play down his chances of winning a match.
Ebdon, who fell out of the world's top 16 at the end of last season and is now ranked 18th, is due to marry this weekend and then play a qualifying match for the Roewe Shanghai Masters next week.
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.
Ebdon said in his statement: '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 Roewe Shanghai Masters qualifying match in Sheffield 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.
'I know just how bad I can be when I don't feel properly prepared as I am the type of player who needs to practise hard in order to play to a reasonable standard.
'As always, I will be doing my utmost to win what is a very important match for me but in truth, my levels of expectation will not be very high.'
