Ronnie put up an excellent performance to beat Judd Trump by 6-3 in the last 16 round of the 2022 Players Championship.

Here are the scores and the stats:

It was overall a very good match to watch.

Here is the report by WST:

Lift Off For The Rocket

Ronnie O’Sullivan scored his first win over Judd Trump in almost three years with a 6-3 victory in front of a capacity crowd at the Cazoo Players Championship in Wolverhampton.

The Rocket last defeated Trump at the 2019 Tour Championship, when he edged an epic semi-final 10-9. Since then he had succumbed to three consecutive losses at the hands of the Ace in the Pack. There wasn’t a spare seat in the house this evening as O’Sullivan put on a supreme showing to stop the rot.

Despite tonight’s victory, six-time World Champion O’Sullivan still trails 2019 Crucible king Trump in the head-to-head standings. His arrears have now been reduced to just one at 13-12.

O’Sullivan currently leads this season’s Cazoo Series, having defeated Neil Robertson in the final of the Cazoo World Grand Prix before Christmas. He now faces Robertson again in this week’s quarter-finals.

Trump’s search for a first ranking title of the season goes on. The Bristolian racked up 11 wins in ranking events over the previous two campaigns, but is yet to go beyond the quarter-finals in one this term. Although, Trump did win the invitational Champion of Champions back in November.

The pair shared the opening two frames this evening, with O’Sullivan crafting a contribution of 90 to take the first, before Trump restored parity to make it 1-1.

Trump had the first opportunity in the third, but his run broke down on 53. O’Sullivan ruthlessly pounced with 83 to hit the front once more. He then added a further break of 99 to head into the mid-session 3-1 ahead.

When play resumed Trump pulled back within a frame. However, from there O’Sullivan charged for the line. Breaks of 62, 127 and 52 helped him to three of the next four, which saw him emerge with the 6-3 win.

O’Sullivan said: “I’m just pleased to get through. This is a good tournament to play in and you don’t want to be out in the first round of these tournaments. I’m happy to be in the event and I’ve got a nice and easy match with Neil Robertson in the next round now!

“There were still a few mistakes in there. I suppose that just happens when you get older, you have lapses in concentration that don’t happen when you are younger. I try to make up for it with other areas of my game and that kind of offsets those lapses that tend to happen.

“It was a good atmosphere and a packed audience. They came out expecting some good stuff so we tried to put on a good match for them.”

The conditions continue to be tricky and I had the feeling that Ronnie was hitting the white a bit harder than usual. Alan McManus spotted changes in the way he feathers and adresses the ball.

There were more details about how the match unfolded on Eurosport website:

PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP SNOOOKER 2022 – DAZZLING RONNIE O’SULLIVAN CRUSHES JUDD TRUMP TO REACH LAST EIGHT

The one-year ranking system threw Ronnie O’Sullivan and Judd Trump together in the first round of the Players Championship. The pair are normally seen contesting finals, and the play on show at the Aldersley Village in Wolverhampton on Tuesday evening was worthy of a final. Trump played well but was no match for O’Sullivan.

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Ronnie O’Sullivan produced arguably his best performance of the season to beat Judd Trump 6-3 and book his place in the last eight of the Players Championship.

O’Sullivan had the incentive of knowing a win this week would propel him back to the top of the world rankings, and he was fully focused in Wolverhampton.

Trump did not play badly, but he had no answer as O’Sullivan seized on any semblance of a mistake to power into the quarter-finals where he will meet Neil Robertson.

It was a surprise that a contest featuring two of the heaviest scorers in the game kicked off with a six-minute safety exchange.

An error from Trump handed a chance to O’Sullivan, and he deftly knocked a red into right middle before falling perfectly on the blue.

O’Sullivan was seen working hard in the practice room on Monday, suggesting he was well focused. And a glorious break of 90 reinforced that view.

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Trump had to watch O’Sullivan race through the opener from his chair, but he showed his cueing arm was in good order with an excellent red at the start of the second. A break of 53 did not kill off the frame at the first time of asking, but he got in again a short while later to level.

The potting clinic continued in the third, as Trump got in with a long red and rolled a superb pot to left middle. He ran out of position on 52, and headed for cover in the baulk area. His safety offered O’Sullivan a shot at a plant, which he executed to perfection to set up a frame-winning counter of 83.

O’Sullivan has been active on social media talking positively about recent exhibition events; the fourth frame had some shots that are normally confined to exhibitions. A stunning red into the yellow pocket got him in, and he had the cue ball zipping around the table as he raced through a break of 99 to move ahead at the interval.

Trump did little wrong before the interval, and reinforced the view that he too was in good form as a break of 73 was enough to secure the fifth frame.

There were collector’s items in the sixth: missed pots. Both passed up chances, but Trump’s proved the most costly as a couple of contributions off the back of errors enabled O’Sullivan to move 4-2 to the good.

Trump hit back to take the seventh, but was fortunate to do so. He broke down on 55, missing a red on the stretch when he would have been wiser taking his time and using the long rest. O’Sullivan countered, but saw the final red wriggle in the jaws of the bottom right and go along the rail and settle over bottom left to allow Trump to clear.

Throughouth the contest, O’Sullivan was seen prowling round the table like a tiger hunting prey. When he came to the table after a Trump miss in the eighth, it looked a tricky puzzle to solve but he picked it apart in supreme style for the 1,134th century of his career.

It was appropriate that a brilliant long red set O’Sullivan on the way to the chequered flag. He came to the table with a lot to do, but calmly picked off a break of 52 before running for cover.

The potting was excellent, but his match play was water-tight as he refused to give Trump a way back in and closed out the match a short while later.

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Ronnie discussed this after the match as reported by Eurosport:

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Ronnie O’Sullivan has admitted to tweaking his cue action, and suggested the time has come to change his moniker.

Alan McManus spotted in commentary during his win over Judd Trump at the Players Championship that O’Sullivan was addressing the ball slightly differently.

It was not obvious to the untrained eye – as O’Sullivan quipped “Angles [McManus] does not miss a trick.”

But it was a minor tweak and something O’Sullivan admitted would likely be adapted again at some stage.

“I am always tinkering,” O’Sullivan told ITV Sport. “They should change my name from the Rocket to the Tinkerer.

“I can’t help it, I just have to.

“It’s not like I’m changing my cue action, I’m just fiddling about with it.”

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O’Sullivan says he is motivated to change as he does not possess the natural technique of some of his peers.

“I am not blessed with a great technique, like Neil Robertson, John Higgins, Trump, Ding Junhui – all these great cueists,” O’Sullivan said. “I have to search for it a bit and do what you have to do.”

Judd Trump was gracious in defeat (report by Eurosport):

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Speaking to ITV after the match, Trump was magnanimous in defeat. “I didn’t really do that much wrong to be honest, Ronnie played brilliantly,” he said.

“When he plays well, you have to play your absolute best. I didn’t really play too badly, I didn’t make that many mistakes, he was just too good.”

Trump went on to suggest that, when O’Sullivan is on top form, he and Higgins are in a different bracket to everyone else.

“It was just one of them games where, when someone as good as Ronnie plays well, you’re going to struggle,” said Trump. “You just have to go away and come back for another time.

“It’s tough. Him and John Higgins are, for me, in their own little world when they play well. I’ve beaten [O’Sullivan] the last three times and I always know there’s going to be a backlash at some point [when I’m playing] against him.

“But, to be honest, it is always enjoyable playing him and I’m not disappointed. I practised hard, he was just too good on the day.”

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Me… very happy!