Rocket And Whirlwind To Meet Again

Ronnie O’Sullivan and Jimmy White will go head to head in the last 32 of the Coral Scottish Open in Glasgow on Thursday after both scored emphatic wins on Wednesday night.

Whirlwind White continued his return to form with a 4-0 thrashing of Ryan Day while O’Sullivan saw off Polish amateur Adam Stefanow 4-1.

The two crowd favourites will clash in the second match on Thursday afternoon (sessions starts 12pm – tickets still available, click here for details) and it will be their second consecutive meeting in a Coral Home Nations event. In Northern Ireland last month they played in the second round, O’Sullivan winning 4-1.

Breaks of 57, 73 and 65 helped 54-year-old White beat Day and he has now won 13 consecutive frames across three matches.

“It was a good result,” said White, whose run of results has boosted his hopes of keeping his tour card for next season. “I qualified for the German Masters last week which gave me a bit more confidence. I’m excited about playing Ronnie and I’ll enjoy it and embrace it. I hope I put up a good show.”

Five-time World Champion O’Sullivan enjoyed runs of 78 and 58 in beating Stefanow but admits his task for the remainder of the week could be made more difficult by a damaged cue tip.

“Usually a new tip would take a while to get used to,” said O’Sullivan. “I’ll take it down as much as I can and hopefully it will be ok tomorrow. I’m cueing ok, I missed a few balls but I’ve been doing that all season. I’m probably missing too many to be able to expect to win tournaments.

“It will be tough against Jimmy. When we played in Ireland it wasn’t the best of matches but Jimmy is playing better now so I’m looking forward to it.”

The match after O’Sullivan v White on the TV table will see local favourite John Higgins take on China’s Mei Xiwen. Wishaw’s Higgins beat Scott Donaldson 4-0 with breaks of 52, 101, 83 and 66.

Higgins said: “I got a few bits of luck at the right time. It will be a long day tomorrow, I’m going home now to get some rest. Hopefully I can have a lie in tomorrow although I don’t know if the Mrs will let me, I might have to take the kids to school! It’s great to have the support on my side here.”

Judd Trump took just 43 minutes to beat Igor Figueiredo 4-0, compiling runs of 100, 51 and 69.

Neil Robertson came from 2-1 down to beat Gary Wilson 4-2 with top breaks of 87 and 107 while Mark Allen top scored with 90 in a 4-0 win over Fang Xiongman.

China’s Xiao Guodong fired runs of 132 and 129 in a 4-1 win over Shaun Murphy while Coral English Open winner Liang Wenbo made a 115 in a 4-1 win over Sydney Wilson.

Barry Hawkins recovered a 2-1 deficit to beat Matthew Stevens 4-2 with best breaks of 100 and 83 while Marco Fu made a tournament high 142 in a 4-1 win over Liam Highfield.

Glasgow’s Stephen Maguire top scored with 74 in a 4-2 win over Fergal O’Brien while Chris Wakelin edged out Ali Carter 4-3, winning a tense 43-minute deciding frame by clearing from the final red.

Coral Northern Ireland Open champion Mark King lost 4-1 to Sean O’Sullivan, whose top break was 87.