Ahead of his last 16 match against Ding, Ronnie shared this picture, with this caption: the business end of the tournament starts now …

… it proved to be the end of the tournament for him, as he was beaten by 6-2.

WST gave only a brief account of the match, without any details about how it unfolded

Ding Downs The Rocket

Ding Junhui dumped World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan out of the Six Red World Championship in Pathum Thani, winning 6-2 to set up a quarter-final meeting with Stuart Bingham.

China’s 14-time ranking event winner Ding has now won his last two encounters with O’Sullivan, having beaten him 6-0 at the UK Championship earlier in the season.

Actually, today’s match was not at all similar to the UK championship quarter-final that Ding completely dominated. This match was actually much closer than the score suggests. The first four frames were shared, both players taking full advantage of their opponent’s mistakes. Ronnie really should have won the next two frames. He was the better player at that stage. In frame 5, well ahead, he only needed the black and Ding would have required snookers. Instead of potting it gently, he tried to force it in order to get position on the yellow. He missed the black, but got the position and Ding cleared to go 3-2 up. It’s hard to understand why he played it that way. The only reason I can think of is that Ronnie – who looked tired – didn’t want to spend a lot more time at the table whilst Ding would be chasing snookers. It was a similar scenario in the next frame: Ronnie only needed the last red but he missed it. It wasn’t an easy pot, it was a cut-back in a blind top corner pocket but again he could have just concentrated on the pot without thinking about position. Again Ding stepped in and stole the frame. From then on, Ding was clearly playing confidently and only got better, Ronnie continued to try but was making more and more mistakes. As it often happens, Ding, the player in front and playing the better snooker was also getting the run of the balls towards the end of the match. In frame 7, Ding, leading by 29-0 broke down with just one red on the table. The red that he had missed was safe. Ronnie played to bring it in a pottable position and snookered Ding in the process as well. Ding escaped from the snooker … and fluked the red.

Here is the match shared by U Sport Thailand Official on YouTube

And here a match report by Eurosport

RONNIE O’SULLIVAN OUT OF SIX RED WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER LOSS TO DING JUNHUI, JUDD TRUMP BEATS MARK WILLIAMS

Ronnie O’Sullivan lost to Ding Junhui 6-2 in the last 16 of the Six Red World Championship, ending his hopes of a third invitational title this season. Ding won four frames in a row to romp away from O’Sullivan, who almost certainly has just one more event, the WST Classic, on his schedule before the World Championship at the Crucible in April, which will be live on discovery+ and Eurosport.

Ronnie O’Sullivan is out of the Six Red World Championship after he was beaten 6-2 by Ding Junhui in the last 16.

O’Sullivan had previously stated to be targeting the event in Thailand, but missed some crucial shots which saw the match slip away.

Ding, who whitewashed O’Sullivan in the quarter-finals of the UK Championship earlier this season, will face Stuart Bingham in the last eight.

Ding took the opening frame with a 70 break after capitalising on a poor escape shot from O’Sullivan.

The Rocket won a lengthy second frame that lasted 20 minutes, a long time in the six-red format, but Ding soon restored his lead with a couple of scoring visits.

O’Sullivan was fighting out there and a 33 in frame four made it all square again, before two big moments saw the match go Ding’s way.

At 31-8 up in the fifth frame, O’Sullivan just needed the black off its spot to leave Ding requiring snookers, but he missed it.

Ding cleared all of the balls up to the final black, went for an ambitious double, which went wide to leave a black ball battle.

A long safety exchange went the way of the Chinese player after he doubled the black once again and sank it into the bottom right pocket to go 3-2 up.

It was a similar story in the next frame as O’Sullivan missed frame ball again, this time a red near the left cushion. 

Ding stepped in and cleared the table to go two clear and won two more close frames to seal the win.