Ronnie booked his place in the semi-finals at the 2024 Masters at Ally Pally this afternoon despite not playing well at all for most of the match. He beat Barry Hawkins by 6-3.

Here are the scores:

And the stats thanks to Kalacs

And this is the report by WST (for now):

HAWK: RONNIE WAS THERE FOR THE TAKING

Ronnie O’Sullivan stepped up his bid for an eighth MrQ Masters title by reaching the semi-finals for the first time since 2019, scoring a 6-3 win over Barry Hawkins who was left frustrated by missed chances.

Hawkins looked the stronger player when he led 3-2, but failed to take opportunities in each of the next four frames, and paid the price as O’Sullivan booked a match with Shaun Murphy or Jack Lisowski on Saturday afternoon at Alexandra Palace. 

“Ronnie was there for the taking,” admitted Hawkins. “I had plenty of chances but I didn’t take them. I kept losing control of the cue ball and making it difficult for myself. I wasn’t intimidated – I felt good – but I just kept missing or running out of position. It’s frustrating but I didn’t deserve to win.”  

World number one O’Sullivan, who won this event in 1995, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2014, 2016 and 2017, is through to the semi-finals for the 15th time. He is looking for his third title of the season having landed the Shanghai Masters in September and the MrQ UK Championship in December. 

“I must have gone through 25 cue actions then managed to find one that seemed to be ok,” O’Sullivan told BBC Sport. “I could pot a few balls and that settled me down. 

“I have played a lot and travelled a lot since September, and been backwards and forwards to China few times which takes it out of you at my age. I have had a cold for four weeks, and I lost my hearing for a while when I was in China. So I haven’t been well but I think everyone is the same – it’s January. 

“At the end I said ‘sorry’ to Barry because it was so bad. If I had played better than I’m sure he would have too and it would have been a good game. But it often seems that when I play badly, the other guy plays even worse. I didn’t feel pressure at all, maybe that’s why I played badly, you need to feel nerves to gee yourself up. Let’s see how it is on Saturday, it could be even worse. I need 12 pockets on the table instead of six.

“I’ll go Champneys and have a nice chill out tonight, have a massage and a pedicure, then come back on Saturday and hope for the best.”

And more quotes reported by Phil Haigh

By Ronnie:

‘I just feel sorry for Barry. He was playing good until he started playing me and I just dragged him down to the most awful standard of snooker,’ ‘So I’m really sorry about that today. I’m just lucky to get through.’ ‘I said sorry mate, I felt bad for him because if I’d have played alright, he’d have played alright,’ said the Rocket. ‘I’ve just got this ability that if I play bad they play even worse. Not everybody, some of the guys punish me, but it’s just how it is.’

By Barry:

‘I felt good going into the game today and I felt good out there,’ ‘For some reason your mind wanders a bit when you play Ronnie. I let him off the hook, I had enough chances. ‘Kept losing the white today, the cue ball wasn’t very good. I had plenty of chances, no complaints. It’s the way it goes.’ It’s just frustrating because normally all season you’d take them chances and win the frames, but when you don’t do it…it’s just frustrating‘

Here are the images shared on social media, by WST and by Ronnie himself

And some videos shared by ES on their YouTube Channel

This phase and the discussion in the studio once again illustrates the honesty of the snooker players in general. Here, Ronnie plays on the black – surely convinced it pots – then notices that it isn’t correctly spotted and asks Rob Spencer to re-spot it. Now it doesn’t seem to go and he’s got a problem…