Ronnie started his UK title defence yesterday with a 6-0 win over young amateur Ross Bulman.
As you can see above, Ronnie scored heavily. He played well, and stuck to his all-attack, no-defence recent attitude. His long potting was quite impressive … unlike his break-off.
Before the match he had shared this on Instagram and twitter
Here is the report by Worldsnooker
Ronnie O’Sullivan started his bid to win a third consecutive Betway UK Championship by beating Ross Bulman 6-0, then said that Judd Trump is currently snooker’s man to beat.
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Seven-time UK Champion O’Sullivan took just 66 minutes – with an average shot time of 13.8 seconds – to book his place in the last 64, where he will face Tian Pengfei on Saturday.
In his post match press conference, the Rocket was asked about Judd Trump, who has won seven tournaments over the past year.
“Judd is ahead of the pack, World Champion, world number one and the man to stop,” said O’Sullivan. “He’s a fantastic player and a great talent. The true test is doing it over ten or 15 years. Tiger Woods is a great. Is Rory McIlroy? Not yet. Potentially he probably will be and it’s great to sit and watch it unfold.”
He was also asked about a comment from Trump that some of O’Sullivan’s fans are “hooligans.”
“I can’t comment on that because I don’t know all the fans who follow me,” said O’Sullivan. “Snooker’s a working class sport, people love to see Jimmy White, Alex Higgins, they follow those type of players. I’m sure at football or golf or other sporting events, people get a bit excited.”
If he had made a 147 tonight, O’Sullivan would have been in line for a share of the £15,000 high break prize claimed yesterday by Barry Hawkins. But he added: “The blue was safe so I didn’t fancy making a maximum, and to get on the pink from the last red was a lot easier. Barry could do with the £15,000 more than me. He is super excited to be able to spend money on some Christmas presents.”
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Ronnie got harsh criticism from Barry Hearn for not attempting the maximum… “Shameful” was the “supremo” verdict. Shameful is my verdict on his new scheme regarding how to reward maximum breaks: to promise £1000000 to be shared if there are 20 of them is just a way to say without saying that there will be no more financial reward for a 147, because 20 is never gonna happen. Just another way to show off about money that will never be paid to the players and he knows it.
What this report doesn’t … report is how full of praise Ronnie was for his young opponent:
Here is the match …
Ronnie will play his last 64 match tomorrow afternoon (1pm UK time). His opponent is the dangerous Tian Pengfei.
The BBC coverage starts tomorrow.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 