Ronnie won his 100th match at the UK Championship yesterday by beating Zhou Yuelong by 6-5. Think about it, winning100 matches in just this one competition! 100 matches over 31 years … and Ronnie didn’t actually play in every UK championship over that period. That’s, on average, more than three matches won in every instance of the event over 31 years. Indeed looking at the career stats, Ronnie has regularly reached the QFs or better in this tournament in tournament.
World number one Ronnie O’Sullivan scored a thrilling 6-5 win over Zhou Yuelong to set up a blockbuster semi-final showdown with Iran’s Hossein Vafaei at the MrQ UK Championship in York.
O’Sullivan and Vafaei were involved in a war of words in the build up to their meeting at the World Championship earlier this year. Tensions arose between the pair when O’Sullivan smashed the reds open from the break in a 5-0 win for Vafaei in 2022 German Masters. He returned the favour at the Crucible, but succumbed to a thumping 13-2 defeat at the hands of the Rocket, who had his retribution. After the match they appeared to have made up as they embraced walking out of the arena.
Today’s victory is O’Sullivan’s 100th match win in the UK Championship and sees him reach the 90th ranking semi-final of his career. It means Judd Trump must now make at least the final if he is to knock O’Sullivan from the summit of the world rankings.
This afternoon’s tie saw O’Sullivan get off to a blistering start. Breaks of 125 and 68 helped him on his way to establishing a 3-0 lead. However, Zhou kept in contention by taking a scrappy fourth to head in for the interval 3-1 behind.
When play resumed it was soon 4-1, after a break of 60 saw 39-time ranking event winner O’Sullivan regain his three-frame cushion. Despite struggling in the first half of the match, China’s Zhou found his feet and managed to claw his way back into proceedings and to the cusp of victory, with a four-frame burst to go 5-4 up.
O’Sullivan was staring down the barrel of defeat, but clicked back into gear just in time with runs of 77 and 122 to fight back and secure a thrilling 6-5 win.
“I’m technically all over the gaff. Out of desperation I started to play alright. When I was going through the motions and plodding away, I was just awful. I was steering the ball, trying to guide the ball in and I was twitching. I was doing all sorts. In the last two frames I thought, just commit,” said 47-year-old O’Sullivan. “I’ve had a result winning one match here. I said to my mate yesterday, we’ve done amazing so far to make the quarters. I’m pleased to be in the semis.
“He (Hossein) is playing great. I saw the breaks he was knocking in and I think he’s a fantastic player. He has that killer instinct and he’s not scared of anyone. He goes out there and attacks the game”
Vafaei earned his place in the last four with an impressive 6-4 win over International Champion Zhang Anda.
The world number 18 now knows that if Ding Junhui fails to make the semi-finals he will dislodge him and move into the world’s top 16, regardless of the scoreline against O’Sullivan.
For the second match in a row, Vafaei hammered home three centuries on his way to victory. He crafted runs of 120, 100 and 106 during this afternoon’s match.
“To be honest with you I don’t know what has clicked. Sometimes in life you need something to click. It gives you confidence and you start believing in yourself that you can do it. All of a sudden you find consistency without thinking. I’m so happy that I’m still in the tournament,” said Vafaei.
“I learned so much from that match (against O’Sullivan at the World Championship). If I didn’t put myself in that situation who knows where I would be. Maybe that is the reason I am here right now. I learned a lot from it and learned to control my mind, myself and my mouth!
“I’m looking forward to it. Any occasion playing your hero and legend and the greatest of all-time. Nobody can play snooker better than Ronnie O’Sullivan lets be honest. He is a genius at his work. I am so happy his documentary came out and people can watch it as well. It is such a good thing for our sport.”
Ronnie didn’t play well yesterday. He started well, finished well but, in between, he was awful. It’s a testimony of his will to win and persistence that he managed to get through. That is a quality that is often overlooked. People tend to remember the times when Ronnie had meltdowns, but he’s won his fair shares of hard ugly battles as well as deciders. Yesterday was one of these occasions, as Nick Metcalfe duly mentioned on twitter,
I won’t lie, I found it hard to watch as it happened but was very happy afterwards!
“When I look back at the first one, I think that it was so nice back then that no one knew me,” Ronnie O’Sullivan told the World Snooker Tour.
“I was just walking through my hotel, through the car park at the Preston Guild Hall. No one stopped me or spoke to me.”
“I could go and do my snooker, but obviously once I’ve won the tournament and gone home, your life changes a bit.
“I do remember just having the peace and quiet of just going and being anonymous.
“Loving the game and not having the pressure of people wanting a piece of you – that’s what I find hard now, people wanting a piece of me.
“I find it difficult when people see me and tell me I’m going to win this or win that. I feel like I just want to tell them to go away.
“I hate it. The more people tell me you can do this, the more I think I’m going to lose, because you get on my nerves.
“I just don’t like it. I just can’t handle it. I’d like to just turn up and play.
“I’ve won seven Masters, seven UKs, seven Worlds. ‘He’s got to win an eighth, he’s got to win a ninth.’ I can’t just have a bit of peace and quiet and enjoy it.
“What will be will be. I don’t find it that important really. I find it difficult, the pressure of what people expect from me. I don’t like it.
“That’s why I try to stay away from people to be honest, but it’s hard when you’re in a hotel. They just find you, you know.
“I just wish people wouldn’t say that to me. Just say hello and how are you doing? ‘How’s Ronnie? How’s Ronnie today?’ That’d be nice.”
…
The match against Vafaei today will not be easy but Ronnie is still in the draw, he’s still in with a chance to progress further and that looked very unlikely at times yesterday afternoon ! Whatever happens today, Ronnie will be 9th or better in the one year list at the end of the tournament. His spot in the World Grand Prix is safe.
I didn’t see a thing of the Hossein v Zhang match, so I can’t assess Hossein’s form but It’s probably very good and he will be very motivated too! Ouch!
Judd Trump held off a Mark Selby fightback to win 6-3 and earn his place in the semi-finals of the MrQ UK Championship in York.
Victory sees player of the season so far Trump remain in the hunt to dethrone Ronnie O’Sullivan and move to the top in the world rankings. Trump will claim the world number one spot if he wins his semi-final with Ding Junhui tomorrow and O’Sullivan is beaten in his last four clash with Hossein Vafaei.
The Ace in the Pack has already enjoyed a remarkable campaign, having become only the fifth player in snooker history to capture three consecutive ranking titles. Trump won successive silverware at the English Open, Northern Ireland Open and Wuhan Open. He was also runner-up to Mark Allen at the recent Champion of Champions. The 26-time ranking event winner is aiming to capture a second UK title this week. He won the event back in 2011 with a 10-8 win over Allen.
Defeat means that despite some strong showings, 22-time ranking event winner Selby will have to wait for his first title of the season. The Jester from Leicester was runner-up to Mark Williams at the British Open and lost semi-finals at the Shanghai Masters and European Masters.
Trump blitzed to a 4-0 lead this evening, making breaks of 100, 93 and 52 along the way. Selby replied by taking the fourth, but it was Trump who moved to the verge of victory with a run of 95 to make it 5-1.
Selby dug deep and took the seventh, before making 98 to pull within two frames at 5-3. However, Trump wasn’t to be denied and he took the ninth to get over the line and make his first semi-final in York since 2014.
“Whenever you have a big lead you are always relieved to get over the line. Especially when someone looks like they are back in form, like when he went 5-3. A lot of relief to get the win,” said 2019 World Champion Trump.
“It is horrible against anyone when you have that kind of lead. Unless you are really flying, you always feel like they can come back at you. Especially when there have already been shocks in the tournament, you don’t want to be added to that list.
“It is going to be amazing to be back in a semi-final here. It has already been a brilliant season, but until you prove yourself in these really big events then you can easily get forgotten about. You want to be delivering on the big stage as much as possible. It is nice to do it in some of the other events, but a lot of people watch these that don’t watch the other ones so it is nice to go out there and prove it again.”
Ding earned his place in the semi-finals with a thrilling 6-5 win over Welshman Mark Williams.
China’s Ding is a three-time UK Champion, having 2005, 2009 and 2019. His win this evening sees him move within two matches of a fourth title in the event and also secures his place in the top 16 for the upcoming Masters.
With Ding leading 4-3, the pair were involved in a landmark frame. Williams won the eighth by a scoreline of 101-94, making it the highest scoring frame in snooker history. The 195 accumulative points beat the previous record of 192 set by Dominic Dale and Peter Lines.
Williams took the next to make it 5-4, before Ding restored parity and forced a decider. Both players spurned chances in the final frame, but it was Ding who eventually fired in a century break of 105 to seal victory.
Mark Selby fought valiantly from 4-0 down but he had left himself far too much to do. He played awful before the MSI. He went on the practice table during and improved significantly but really It was too late.
I saw nothing of the other evening match.
Here is the end of the mammoth frame played between Ding and Willo … they only spent 20 minutes plus on the five last colours… 😮😲
3 thoughts on “2023 UK Championship – Ronnie wins on Day 7 (QFs)”
Ronnie Horror Picture Show. 😛 I couldn’t watch the end, fed the cats and did other things, it was hard. But great start and great finish and some deep valley in the middle. Very happy with the result. Of course when he says he decided to commit in the end, will just fuel what people already say: he wins when he tries. 😃
He’ll probably prefer playing Vafaei to Zhang Anda, but who knows what will happen? None of the evening matches ended as I would have preferred, especially Selby was atrocious in the beginning.
By “commit” he meant “commit to the shot”, as opposed to being tentative and “stirring the ball” as he explained. Basically … playing the shot and giving it 100% as if he felt confident when actually he wasn’t at all. Nothing to do with trying or not.
Yeah, listening to his interview now I realised my bad, was not clear from the written part. 😏
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
Ronnie Horror Picture Show. 😛 I couldn’t watch the end, fed the cats and did other things, it was hard. But great start and great finish and some deep valley in the middle. Very happy with the result. Of course when he says he decided to commit in the end, will just fuel what people already say: he wins when he tries. 😃
He’ll probably prefer playing Vafaei to Zhang Anda, but who knows what will happen? None of the evening matches ended as I would have preferred, especially Selby was atrocious in the beginning.
By “commit” he meant “commit to the shot”, as opposed to being tentative and “stirring the ball” as he explained. Basically … playing the shot and giving it 100% as if he felt confident when actually he wasn’t at all. Nothing to do with trying or not.
Yeah, listening to his interview now I realised my bad, was not clear from the written part. 😏