O’Sullivan Overcomes Xiao Test

Ronnie O’Sullivan has progressed to the last 32 of the International Championship in Daqing, after overcoming a strong challenge from Xiao Guodong.

The Rocket knocked in a sublime total clearance of 137 in the opening frame and things looked ominous for Xiao as the lead was doubled with a run of 55 in the second. However, runs of 48, 69 and 79 meant that the scoreline converged at 3-3.

O’Sullivan claimed the next two frames to make a charge towards the finish line, but Xiao hit back to go 5-4. The Chinese potter had looked set to force a decider, but missed an awkward pink with the rest to take the tenth frame. O’Sullivan forced a re-spot, before Xiao despairingly went in off to hand the Rocket the match.

“Xiao is a good friend of mine. He’s a strong player,” said O’Sullivan. “It’s never nice to lose a game like that, but I’m just really happy to be through to the next round.”

Following a scare against Mitchell Mann yesterday, the last 64 saw a dramatic improvement in Ding Junhui’s form. He spurned a fantastic chance for the seventh 147 of his career during his clash with David Grace. Ding suffered a kick whilst trying to get position on the brown from the green and couldn’t recover, ending his run on 125.  In the other frames he made contributions of 90, 59 and 84, as he ran out a 6-1 victor.

The win was made more special by the fact that Ding’s father was on commentary for host Chinese broadcaster CCTV.

Ding said: “I genuinely didn’t know that my dad was going to commentate on my match. I played alright so I guess that made things a bit easier for him.”

Judd Trump came through despite a spirited fight back from Chinese teenager Yuan Sijun. The Juddernaught had charged into a 3-0 advantage. However, Sijun clawed his way back to parity by winning three frames in a row. The recent European Masters Champion remained unflustered and made back to back century runs of 108 and 125 to get over the line and win 6-3.  Next up for Trump is Tom Ford in the last 32.

Mark Selby secured his passage with a 6-2 defeat the 147 hero from the English Open Alfie Burden. The Jester from Leicester made breaks of 58, 85, 67 and 86 during the win.

Joe Perry required a dramatic fight back to beat Andrew Higginson. The world number 11 had trailed 5-2, but won four frames in a row to edge to a 6-5 win.  Next up for the Gentleman is India’s Aditya Mehta.

Mark Williams succumbed to a shock wildcard Xu Si.  The Chinese potter made runs of 76, 88, 77 and 52 in a narrow 6-5 win.

For full results click here.