This is WST report on day 2 in Nanjing

INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP DAY TWO

Neil Robertson fired in four centuries to blow China’s Fan Zhengyi away 6-0 at the International Championship in Nanjing.

The Australian is in need of a strong showing this week, which marks the final cut off for UK Championship qualification. With only 16 players automatically securing a place in the final stages, he arrived in Nanjing perilously positioned in 16^th in the provisional Johnstone’s Paint World Rankings.

Today’s result leaves the Thunder from Down Under needing just one more victory to move ahead of Jak Jones in 15^th and strengthen his hand. However, he now faces a crunch showdown with Barry Hawkins, who is also vying to push his way into the top 16.  Hawkins beat Joe Perry 6-2 in his last 64 tie.

A supreme display today saw Robertson demolish former European Masters champion Fan in just over an hour and 40 minutes. He hammered home breaks of 135, 102, 135 and 109 along the way.

Robertson said: “I’m very pleased because Fan is a really dangerous player. He has beaten Ronnie O’Sullivan in the final of a ranking event before. The key was to try and limit his chances to tough ones where he might be leaving me in. That happened a couple of times and I potted some good long balls. I scored really heavily and that is going to be the key this week.

“It was a good to win. There are a lot of ranking points up for grabs. The UK Championship is coming so I want to get a good run going. Everyone is building up towards the first Triple Crown event of the season. This is the one where the real world exposure is on you.”

Having lost twice to him already this season, seven-time World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan secured his first ever win over China’s He Guoqiang, prevailing 6-2.

The Rocket succumbed to losses at the Championship League and the English Open at the hands of the talented Chinese 24-year-old, who was Rookie of the Year last season.

O’Sullivan crafted breaks of 73, 87, 83, 70, 58, 53 and 72 during today’s win. He now plays Pang Junxu in the last 32.

O’Sullivan said: “There are so many good Chinese players, who are technically very good and play amazing games. That was the third time I’ve played this guy and he beat me the first two times. For me, it was a big match and I had to just block out that I’d lost the previous two and try to play my game.”

China’s top star Ding Junhui thrilled his home fans with a 6-1 win over Martin O’Donnell. That sets up an intriguing meeting with Iranian number one Hossein Vafaei.

World Champion Kyren Wilson was a 6-3 winner over Liu Hongyu, while world number one Judd Trump whitewashed Sanderson Lam 6-0. They now face Wu Yize and Joe O’Connor respectively.

World number three Mark Allen scored a 6-1 win over Aaron Hill to progress. That books him a clash with recent Wuhan Open winner Xiao Guodong.

The “highlighting” of the part of the text relative to Ronnie’s match is my doing.

Here are the scores for that match:

As you can it was a quality match, despite the fact that there was no century. They played 8 frames and, between them had 10 breaks over 50, 7 by Ronnie, 3 by He ! That’s some scoring fest. I was a good match to watch. No procrastination, no mind games. It was played at a good rhythm too. My impression was that Ronnie is playing faster than he was a couple of months ago. It was very much “see shot, play shot” and I think that this is the right approach for him… and for most players actually.

Here are some images shared by WST

You will find a link to Ronnie’s post match interview in the comments section. Thanks to Kalacs !!!

In that interview Ronnie reiterates how much he loves China. He also praises the young Chinese players.

Some of these quotes are reported by Charlie Parker-Turner, writing for the Express

Ronnie O’Sullivan jealous of snooker rival despite hammering him 6-2

Ronnie O’Sullivan has returned from a 47-day hiatus in style.

Charlie Parker-Turner

Ronnie O’Sullivan has revealed that he is jealous of the ‘talent’ some of his Chinese rivals have.

After withdrawing from a string of events, the Rocket has hit the ground running upon his return to the table at the International Championship.

The seven-time world champion added to his first-round win over Mink Nutcharut with an impressive 6-2 win over He Guoqiang on Monday, having lost to the 24-year-old on the two occasions that they had met previously.

Speaking after booking his spot in the final 32 in Nanjing, O’Sullivan heaped the praise on Guoqiang and opened up on how he was envious of his opponent’s ability, despite putting him to the sword in style.

He explained: “It was a big match for me because he’d beaten me the two times we’d played. I had to block out that I lost the previous two and play my game.

“These Chinese boys are so talented. I wish I had their games. They’re so technically good. I’ve got that nous. I’m a bit streetwise, that’s got me through my whole career. But I wish I had the technique that about 80 guys on the tour have.

“The way they pot balls is unbelievable. I can’t pot like them. If I had their technique and cue action I’d go unbeaten the whole of my life.”

O’Sullivan will face Pang Junxu in the next round of the competition as he bids to win his first International Championship title, though several other familiar faces have also hit a rich vein of form in the early stages of the tournament too.

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O’Sullivan will be keen to take plenty of confidence from his victory over Guoqiang as he looks to go all the way in Nanjing, especially given how he was so despondent when losing to his Chinese rival at the English Open. Following the defeat, the Rocket labelled himself as ‘embarrassing’ and ‘poor’, though his display here suggested that he has found his mojo once again.

He also assessed his own popularity:

“I get very good support wherever I go all over the world,” O’Sullivan, who is playing a tournament for the first time since losing to He at the English Open in September, told the World Snooker Tour following his win.

“I think that’s just because I’ve been playing the game for so long now. I’ve won a lot of big titles, I think that’s what people like: to win the big tournaments, holding all the records.

“As well as my style of play, I’ve managed to entertain the fans.

“If you asked 100 snooker fans who they’d want to watch, probably the majority of them would say me because I kind of tick every box there is to tick as a sportsman.“

Here is also the end of match video shared on Youtube by Eurosport