Ronnie O’Sullivan produced a brilliant comeback to rally from 3-0 down and beat Zhang Anda 6-5 to make the quarter-finals of the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters.
The Rocket came into the tie having lost his previous two meetings with Zhang. The Chinese cueman prevailed last season at the English Open, before scoring a famous 9-6 win over O’Sullivan on his way to winning the International Championship.
Zhang has been in supreme touch this week, after scoring a record breaking 5-0 whitewash win over Ben Woollaston in the previous round. He became the first ever player to make four total clearances in a best of nine match.
That form carried over into this evening’s game when he stormed into a 3-0 lead with breaks of 67, 77 and 66. He had the first chance in the fourth, but crucially spurned a red to the middle on 26. O’Sullivan stepped up with 64 to head into the mid-session two behind at 3-1.
When play resumed, back to back century runs of 109 saw 41-time ranking event winner O’Sullivan draw level at 3-3. The following frames were traded until Zhang led 5-4. The Englishman forced a decider with a break of 87, before a sensational long red to the green pocket gave him an opportunity which he swallowed up with 78 to win a thrilling match.
Despite the clinical nature of the way he closed out the victory, O’Sullivan stated that he is unhappy with how he is playing and feels that he is on the decline. He now faces Si Jiahui, who beat Pang Junxu 6-5 in a late night battle.
“There are so many unforced errors and so many mistakes compared to how it used to be. That is the reason why I don’t feel as dominant,” said seven-time World Champion O’Sullivan.
“I don’t think you can get that feeling back. I look at Stephen Hendry, Steve Davis, Jimmy White and John Higgins and watch them. I know how they used to play in their prime and then watch them towards the end, they are missing too many balls, making too many mistakes and have too much inconsistency. You need to be consistent to be a proper winner.”
Welsh three-time World Champion Mark Williams clinched a place in the 113th ranking quarter-final of his career, defeating 2015 Crucible king Stuart Bingham 6-2.
Williams fired in breaks of 71, 77 and 64 during the victory and will now face Jimmy Robertson in the last eight.
Williams said: “It is unbelievable (to be in a 113th ranking quarter-final). The only aim I’ve had in recent times is to see if I can be in the top 16 at the age of 50. I’m only six months away from that now. I’ve put myself in a good position and I think that will be a good achievement.”
Former European Masters winner Robertson scored a stunning 6-4 win over World Champion Kyren Wilson, having already defeated John Higgins in the previous round.