The 2023 Wuhan Open – Ronnie wins on Day 4

Ronnie has reached the quarter final stage yesterday in Wuhan by beating Yuan Sijun by 5-1. He will play Lyu Haotian today. That is as far as he got in any ranking event last season. Hopefully he will be able to better that today.

Here is the report by WST:

O’Sullivan secured his passage to the last eight thanks to an entertaining 5-1 defeat of China’s Yuan Sijun.

The Rocket is aiming to win a third consecutive event in China, having scored big invitational wins at the 2022 Hong Kong Masters and the recent Shanghai Masters.

The seven-time World Champion dominated this evening’s tie, making breaks of 130, 64 and 82 on his way to a 4-1 advantage. The last frame saw him trail 63-5 and require all blacks with the reds in difficult positions. O’Sullivan found away to get the blacks he required and finish off the match. Afterwards he admitted he savours the test of winning frames from tough spots.

“I quite like that sort of challenge sometimes. I didn’t expect to win it, but you know what you have to do and know you need to go red, black, red, black to have a chance. There is nothing to lose in a frame like that,” said 39-time ranking event winner O’Sullivan.

“I think these conditions (in China) suit me and Judd more than anyone else. I liken it a bit to Nadal playing on clay. It forces you to play certain shots. You can be in perfect position one minute and then out of position the next. You need to be a bit of a shotmaker. The ball runs on and you can’t screw it as much. The white tends to go near the side cushion if you don’t play it correctly. Methodical players don’t like that. Me and Judd make it up as we go along.”

And the scores