Ronnie O'Sullivan survives Dechawat Poomjaeng scare to move into third round of English Open snooker 2022

Updated 14/12/2022 at 17:06 GMT

World No. 130 Dechawat Poomjaeng made world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan work hard for his English Open second round win. The Rocket found himself two frames down early on but stormed back to win 4-2 after an encounter packed with unusual errors and classic flukes. Stream the 2022 English Open and more top snooker action live and on-demand on discovery+ and eurosport.co.uk

'Answers on a postcard' - O'Sullivan gets outrageous fluke before mesmerising black at English Open

Ronnie O'Sullivan survived an early scare to overcome Dechawat Poomjaeng and move into the third round of the 2022 English Open.

The number 130 in the world found himself two frames up on the world champion in an entertaining encounter before O'Sullivan upped the gears to win four frames in a row to advance.

A surprising early miss in the first to left centre from O’Sullivan opened the door for Poomjaeng and the underdog put up a break of 44.

English Open

White and Bingham lose in English Open qualifying round

08/09/2023 at 22:05

Another uncharacteristic error saw The Rocket miss a black off the spot and Poomjaeng was able to put himself on the board by taking the first frame.

The scrappy nature of the early exchanges continued in a chaotic second frame with mistakes aplenty, including missed pots, O’Sullivan potting the white and Poomjaeng fouling after his shirt draped the green.

An outrageous fluke from the world No. 1 was just another eye-opening moment in the frame, but as the two men required a re-spotted black to settle it, the Brentwood crowd was left dumbstruck by more bizarre play with some absurd shot choices until Poomjaeng finally doubled his advantage.

O’Sullivan’s straightforward blitz through the third frame, following a quick-fire break of 61, was almost out of place in the match at that point but set the world champion back on course.

A break of 69 then levelled the match at two frames all before O’Sullivan took the lead for the first time with a fantastic break of 104.

Although missing out on a century in the sixth, O'Sullivan took the victory after Poomjaeng conceded after accepting he would not get the snookers required to force another frame.

Victory for O'Sullivan sets up a meeting with Martin Gould.

'What is going on?' - O'Sullivan and Poomjaeng's bizarre battle on re-spotted black

Elsewhere, Jack Lisowski was in fine form as he sweapt aside Stuart Carrington 4-0, while Barry Hawkins overcame Muhammad Asif 4-2.

Shaun Murphy got off to a flier in his 4-1 win over Sam Craigie, rattling of a break of 119 to take the first frame.

However, if he thought he was about to make quick work of his opponent, he was brought back down to earth in a gruelling 42-minute frame to take a 2-0 lead.

A break of 51 in control put the Magician three up and firmly in control but Craigie found his groove in emphatic fashion with 118 in a single visit to the table to extend the match.

However, this proved to be just a minor bump in the road for Murphy who ended the match in style, wrapping up proceedings with another century of his own, finishing with 131.

He now faces Anthony McGill in round three.

- -

Stream the 2022 English Open and more top snooker action live and on-demand on discovery+ and eurosport.co.uk

English Open