Snooker news - Ronnie O'Sullivan beats Matthew Stevens to reach English Open fourth round

Updated 18/10/2018 at 16:24 GMT

Ronnie O'Sullivan followed up his 147 heroics on Wednesday with a routine third-round victory over Matthew Stevens on Thursday at the English Open.

O’Sullivan was in good form on the table but not happy with standards off it

Image credit: PA Sport

It has been a topsy-turvy week for O'Sullivan at the K2 Arena, starting with controversial comments about the venue's leisure centre and alleged smell of 'urine' that upset many at World Snooker and the hosts venue.

But Wednesday's 147 turned the headlines back in Ronnie's favour, and he built on that with a classy showing against Stevens to reach the fourth round.

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While the Rocket didn't manage a century break in the match, he looked more comfortable on the baize than he had all week, knocking in some excellent long reds.

A break of 75 in the opening frame got the ball rolling for the Rocket, only for Stevens to hit back with a 90 break of his own.

But from that point on it was all O'Sullivan, with three straight frames sealing his place in the next round.

Allister Carter and Neil Robertson were the other big winners on Thursday morning, while Ricky Walden came out on top in a 4-3 thriller against Ben Woollaston.

Later on Thursday world champion Mark Williams was stunned 4-3 by Zhou Yuelong.

It was a tight affair, with both players making mistakes and Williams was visibly frustrated with his own performance.

Despite some impressive long pots he was unable to make it through.

There were further upsets as well as 18-year-old Luo Honghao beat Anthony McGill 4-2 and Robert Milkins knocked out Shaun Murphy.

Sixth seed Barry Hawkins was beaten 4-3 by Daniel Wells.

Thursday Results

Ronnie O'Sullivan 4-1 Matthew Stevens

Ricky Walden 4-3 Ben Woollaston

Luo Honghao 4-2 Anthony McGill

Mark Davis 4-2 Mei Xiwen

Allister Carter 4-1 Matthew Selt

Noppon Saengkham 4-1 Yuan Sijun

Stuart Bingham 4-3 Thepchaiya Un-Nooh

Neil Robertson 4-1 Alan McManus

Eden Sharav 4-0 Craig Steadman

Ryan Day 4-2 Mark King

John Higgins 4-1 Martin Gould

Robert Milkins 4-1 Shaun Murphy

Stephen Maguire 4-2 Jordan Brown

Daniel Wells 4-3 Barry Hawkins

Zhou Yuelong 4-3 Mark Williams

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