English Open 2021 - Ronnie O'Sullivan hits century to survive Anthony Hamilton scare and reach fourth round

Updated 04/11/2021 at 18:37 GMT

Former world number one Ronnie O'Sullivan is through to the fourth round of the English Open after he secured a 4-3 win over experienced journeyman Anthony Hamilton. Sullivan looked in control at 2-0 and 3-1 but let his rival force his way back to a decider until he hit a brilliant century for the win.

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Ronnie O’Sullivan reached the fourth round of the English Open when he defeated Anthony Hamilton 4-3 on Wednesday afternoon.

The former world number one is looking for his second-ever English Open victory and he remains on course at this relatively early stage in the competition, but survived a real scare.

The 45-year-old was in decent form in the first two frames as he hit 60-plus breaks in both to take him halfway to the four frames required for victory.

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Hamilton, 50, was looking for just his second-ever ranking tournament title win, and he held on as he won a scrappy 61-49 third frame.

O’Sullivan restored his two-frame advantage with a break of 62 leaving Hamilton with no hope of fighting back into the frame, leaving him needing just one more for the win. Another strong break, this time of 71, levelled things for Hamilton to tee up a decider.

While O’Sullivan has suffered his fair share of early exits and surprise upsets against weaker - on paper - opponents, he was able to rally to get through to the next round with a masterful 119 break.