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O’Sullivan rallies to hold off Liang
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RONNIE ‘The Rocket’ O’Sullivan rallied from the brink with a brilliant finish as he staved off a first-round elimination from the Shanghai Masters by edging Liang Wenbo 5-4 at Shanghai Indoor Stadium last night.
It is O’Sullivan’s first ranking tournament of the new season. Not in his best form, the Englishman lost the first frame after missing the last red. He got one back before allowing Liang to take the next three frames for a 4-1 lead.
It was obvious that Shanghai fans wanted the world No. 11 to go deep into the tournament, cheering loudly for O’Sullivan, who pulled three frames back to tie the score at 4-4. He then held his nerve to take the decider.
“It was a tough first round,” he conceded. “I’m not sure when was the turning point. Liang didn’t manage to retain his form later in the game. Otherwise he might have won it.”
Liang overcame compatriot Hu Hao 5-3 in the earlier wildcard round to set up the clash with The Rocket. Their last duel was in the final of the 2009 Shanghai Masters, when, too, O’Sullivan won, the score being 10-5.
O’Sullivan will take on fellow Englishman Michael Holt next.
In other first-round matches yesterday, Northern Ireland’s Mark Allen trashed Scot Anthony McGill 5-0; Welshman Ryan Day beat Chinese wildcarder Ma Bing 5-1; and Chinese teenager Yuan Sijun lost 1-5 to world No. 1 Mark Selby of England.
Yuan, 16, had surprised home fans with a 5-0 demolition of world No. 17 Martin Gould of England in the wildcard round.
Scotland’s Stephen Maguire managed a break of 147 during his 5-0 win over another Chinese wildcarder Xu Yichen.
On Monday, the first day of the competition, home favorite Ding Junhui was forced to play the full 9 frames to overcome Scott Donaldson in his 5-4 first-round victory.
The world No. 114-ranked Scot took a 3-1 lead but after the break Ding pulled two frames back before Donaldson claimed the seventh for a 4-3 edge.
Ding won the next frame and forced the game into a decider. Donaldson nudged ahead with a 45-41 advantage before leaving a simple black over the pocket. Ding then cleared up with a break of 32 for the victory, which delighted local supporters who had stayed behind in the arena until almost midnight for Ding.
“I wanted to raise my pace and play a quicker match, but it did not go my way and my accuracy was not satisfying,” Ding said after the 4-1/2-hour match. “He (Donaldson) showed a lack of experience in facing that black, which would not have troubled any of the top 16 ranked players. I did not play in a way people expected me to, but the victory is what is important.”
Ding will take on Allen in the second round on Thursday. Scot John Higgins and Michael White of Wales also advanced. But Marco Fu of China’s Hong Kong once again took a one-round trip at the Shanghai event, falling to David Gilbert of England.
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