Pang Junxu produced a superb performance to defeat seven-time World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan 6-4 at the International Championship in Nanjing.
It’s a first ever win over the Rocket for Pang in a match over the best of seven frames or longer. The victory sees him progress to earn a last 16 encounter with Jackson Page.
Pang, who was Rookie of the Year in 2021, is currently in red hot form. He arrived in Nanjing off the back of a run to the semi-finals of the Northern Ireland Open, which ended in a 6-4 defeat to World Champion Kyren Wilson.
After the opening four frames they were locked level at 2-2, before breaks of 85 and 73 saw Pang pull clear at 4-2. The Rocket didn’t back down and replied by taking the following two frames himself to restore parity at 4-4.
The ninth frame saw Pang embark on a 147 attempt. Having potted 15 reds and 14 blacks, he was left out of position with a long range cut on the 15th black. Pang deposited it, but failed to follow that up with a difficult yellow on the side cushion, ending his run on 120.
He quickly recovered from the disappointment of missing out on the maximum by crafting a match winning 123 in the next to secure victory.
"I felt a bit tense going for the 147 and I didn’t get the position I wanted. It was unfortunate, I left myself with an almost impossible angle on the black, so I wasn’t sure how to take on that final ball,” said 24-year-old Pang.
“When he came back to level after I was leading 4-2, I didn’t feel much pressure. His comeback wasn’t really related to my own performance. I managed to finish the last two frames with single visits.
“I’ve faced him four times in pro tournaments and each time I lost by a close margin. In previous matches I held back quite a bit, but today I played more freely and went for my shots. It wasn’t scared. I approached the game as an opportunity to learn from him."
Although Pang narrowly missed out on the perfect break, his Chinese compatriot Xu Si did achieve the feat of making a 147 in his 6-2 defeat of Welshman Ryan Day.
Xu is now in line to scoop the £5,000 high break prize and it is the 15th perfect run to have been made in mainland China. Next up for Xu is the daunting prospect of meeting world number one Judd Trump, who battled past Joe O'Connor 6-4.
Barry Hawkins scored a 6-1 win over Neil Robertson to enhance his hopes of making it into the world’s top 16 and automatically qualifying for the UK Championship ahead of the seeding cut off, which comes at the end of this week.
Hawkins crafted breaks of 77, 50, 80 and 51 on his way to victory. He now faces World Champion Kyren Wilson, who made three centuries in a thrilling 6-4 win over Wu Yize.
Australia’s Robertson is now relying on other results to remain in the automatic qualifying spots for York. Hawkins must reach the semi-finals to surpass him, while Wuhan Open winner Xiao Guodong just needs to make the quarters. Xiao scored a 6-2 win over world number three Mark Allen today and now plays Jack Lisowski.
Chris Wakelin was a 6-3 victor against Shaun Murphy, while Chinese legend Ding Junhui whitewashed Iranian number one Hossein Vafaei 6-0. They now face Mark Williams and Jiang Jun respectively.