Ronnie booked his place in the last 64 of the 2024 World Open with a 5-3 win over Alfie Burden.

Here is the report by WST:

Ronnie O’Sullivan extended his winning streak to 15 matches, with a narrow 5-3 defeat of Alfie Burden to earn his place in the final stages of the World Open.

The Rocket has been in imperious form of late, winning three consecutive titles at the UK Championship, Masters and the World Grand Prix. However, world number 98 Burden provided a stern test this evening.

With O’Sullivan leading 3-2, it was Burden who fired in a superb century run of 104 to restore parity at 3-3. However, the seven-time World Champion stepped up when he needed it and made breaks of 83 and 58 to take the next two and get himself through.

And the scores …

It wasn’t a great match by any means. Alfie is a very capable player – I wonder why he hasn’t done better each time I watch him play – and Ronnie, who was clearly in pain (foot injury), looked tired and uninspired. That was to be expected… qualifiers in Barnsley after winning three major titles, that’s not very enthralling to say the least. But he did enough and it’s all that matters.

Here is the last frame, shared by Eurosport on their YouTube channel

I will look at the results of those qualifiers tomorrow when all matches are done.

Anyway … Ronnie and Alfie go a lomg way and off the table they always had a good relationship. Alfie posted this on Twitter (yes X, I know) …