Playing the 1,000th ranking event match of his illustrious career, Ronnie O’Sullivan looked sharp as he fired two centuries in a 5-0 win over Iulian Boiko to reach the last 64 of the Xi’an Grand Prix.
Seven-time World Champion O’Sullivan joins John Higgins and Mark Williams as the only players to reach four figures in terms of matches in ranking events. In fact this was the Rocket’s first competitive outing for over seven weeks, as his last appearance was at the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters in August, when he made two 147s in the semi-finals before losing an epic final 10-9 to Neil Robertson. He chose not to compete in the next three tournaments but delighted fans in Xi’an today with a few vintage moments, notably breaks of 107 in the opening frame and 112 in the fourth.
“It was a tough game, there were two or three frames which Iulian could have won,” said 49-year-old O’Sullivan, who will face Yao Pengcheng on Wednesday. “I haven’t played for nearly two months so it felt a bit strange to play a serious game, I felt a bit rusty. My preparation on the practice table has been good, but practice and playing matches are very different.
“It’s an amazing milestone (1,000 ranking event matches), well done to Mark and John for reaching it too. We knew each other as juniors, I have been playing Mark since we were ten. Now we have been pros for 33 years, we have all had really good careers and we are still going.“
There were two maximum breaks on Tuesday – only the fifth time in snooker history that multiple 147s have been made on the same day. World number one Judd Trump scored one of those during a 5-2 win over Onyee Ng, while Aaron Hill made the other in a 5-2 win over Huang Jiahao – for more on that story click here.
Defending champion Kyren Wilson started strongly with a 5-1 defeat of Haris Tahir, compiling breaks of 52, 60, 103 and 76, and now receives a bye into the last 32 as his second round opponent Marco Fu has withdrawn due to injury
Wilson revealed afterwards that his wife Sophie has been unwell in recent weeks, possibly explaining a poor run of results as he has not reached a semi-final since winning the invitational Shanghai Masters in July. “It has been a torrid time off the table, my wife has been very poorly,” said the world number two.
“She was having surgery while I was at the Wuhan Open, it was a last minute decision to play in that event but it did my head in a bit, to know she was on the operating table while I was hitting snooker balls. Those are the sacrifices that me and my family are willing to make to be successful at this game. But sometimes you have to make sure your head is clear. She has six weeks until recovery. I have not really played snooker for a few weeks but I am slowly putting more time in and focussing on my game so hopefully I’ll start seeing results.”
Reflecting on today’s victory, he added: “As defending champion you don’t want to go out in the first round so it’s a pleasing win. I have very fond memories of this place from last year. It’s a fabulous city, I’m going to look around and go a bit deeper into the culture. I like visiting temples and I’m hoping to go and see the Terracotta Warriors. We do so much travelling around China and I love seeing the historic landmarks and creating new memories.”
Ding Junhui top scored with 94 in a 5-1 win over Sam Craigie while Neil Robertson saw off Leone Crowley by the same scoreline. World Champion Zhao Xintong beat Xinbo Wang 5-2, while Louis Heathcote continued his strong start to the season with a 5-0 defeat of Jackson Page.
Saudi Masters semi-finalist Elliot Slessor earned a 5-3 success against Ricky Walden with top runs of 132 and 117, while BetVictor English
Here are the scores for Ronnie’s match:
Obviously a 1000 ranking professional matches is some milestone!
Congratulations Ronnie, on the win and on the 1000th!
The match is available here:
It was an interesting match. Ronnie showed a lot of patience and his tactical game was excellent in general. But he didn’t score as heavily as he used to do and Julian had his fair share of chances. Ronnie will have to improve if he is to go deep in this tournament.
Ronnie O'Sullivan 
His Last 128 match…
Of course, you are right. What was I thinking? 🙄 thank you.